Upkeep at White Oak Business Park took up a significant portion of the Development Authority of Columbia County’s maintenance budget last month. At the Authority’s monthly meeting Wednesday morning, Rick Evans, chairman of the Authority’s board of directors, noted the more than $5,000 spent on maintenance and repairs at the Appling industrial park.
The board discussed the possibility of setting up a care and maintenance (CAM) fee on the tenant companies to shave off the expense.
The board would later vote to use county accounting staff to release the Authority’s monthly financial statements. In years past, Evans said the firm which reviews Columbia County’s financials included the Development Authority in the county’s audit.
However, he also noted that the Regional Economic Business Assistance (REBA) program requires the Development Authority to have its own separate audits.
REBA is an incentive program from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs which grants funds to local development authorities to help finance fixed-asset needs — such as land acquisition, construction or infrastructure — to companies considering planting in Georgia.
Evans mentioned that, after speaking with County Manager Scott Johnson and Internal Services Director Leanne Reece, the Development Authority could feasibly arrange for county accounting staff — particularly a member Evans referred to as “assistant controller” — to assess the Authority’s financials and avoid the high expense of hiring an audit firm.
“They have offered to do what our firm, what my firm, is doing in terms of creating financial statements on a monthly basis, free of charge,” said Evans, also noting that the county assuaged his concerns about turning over the Authority’s account wholly to the county’s accounting system. “We’re still going to be controlling our checkbook. We’ll be writing the checks, we’ll be doing our daily work to produce our financial statements.”
School Superintendent Steven Flynt was present at the meeting, where he talked about the school district’s student redistribution plan. Amid the reconstructed Westmont Elementary School scheduled to reopen in 2024, and North Columbia Elementary School the year after, the district is to implement a plan to begin redistricting students to the new spaces.
He also updated the board on the upcoming opening of the Junior Achievement Discovery Center of the CSRA, located in the Columbia County Schools Support Complex, on Jan. 9, followed by a grand opening event on Jan. 11.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
