A request for waiver of distance requirements for property at the corner of William Few Parkway and Columbia Road will be on the debate agenda to go before the full Columbia County Board of Commissioners.
The Development and Planning Services Committee moved the item to the debate agenda so all commissioners could discuss it. At the committee meeting Tuesday, Deputy County Manager Matt Schlachter said the owner of the parcel is looking at potentially putting a grocery store at that spot, but county code has a distance requirement for property near county parks.
“This is strictly a waiver of distance document…all this says is if they put a grocery store up, 25,000 feet or larger, you will not require them to meet the distance separation,” Schlachter said. “Nothing else says they can get an alcohol license. They still have to apply for, still have to meet every other part of the code and you’ll still have to vote for al alcohol license.”
Audit Committee
The Audit Committee heard the audit results of the Facility Services Division and John Snider, with SME CPA, said overall there were no significant findings. There was a recommendation to review work orders periodically to ensure they are all closed in a timely manner.
Snider also presented a follow-up on the Clerk of Court at the request of the committee following questions from the audit in September. He addressed the previous finding about bank reconciliations. It was discovered the Clerk of Court had approximately $800,000 of deposits and transit that were erroneous. Snider said the Clerk of Court got with their software vendor and was able to remove those transactions.
Snider said he went back to 2021 and found all the duplicate transactions to confirm that they were removed. He also stated that 81% of the reconciliations happened in the same month when a new software was implemented in 2022.
He said he traced 90% of the transactions due to the pattern begin established. The committee asked him to look at the last 10% and give an update at the next Audit Committee meeting.
The committee received an update on the fiscal year 2024-2025 audit. The results of that audit were an unmodified opinion was issued.
Management and Internal Services Committee
The Management and Internal Services Committee approved an amendment to the comprehensive policy 302.1 regarding the grievance procedure. Deputy County Manager Glenn Kennedy said the change comes after seeing a need to clarify the grievance process after the last couple of hearings.
“We consulted with Mr. (Chris) Driver (the county attorney) and he made the following recommended changes,” Kennedy said. “First of all, the right to the Civil Service Board hearing is only extended to full time employees. Part time employees can address their grievances…with the human resources director. We changed some verbiage to clarify the procedure timeline to make it more understandable. And lastly, if prior to a hearing the employee decides to have legal representation, they’re required to provide the contact information for that attorney to the HR director and the county attorney no less than five days prior to the hearing.”
Community and Emergency Services Committee
The Community and Emergency Services Committee approved with an agreement with Open Sky Drone Light Shows for a drone light for the 2026 Boom! In the Park. John Luton, Community Services director, told committee members this is the largest annual event in Columbia County and with it being the 250thanniversary of the United States, they want to celebrate.
“It will feature 200 synchronized drones for a patriotic show. We do have the ability to choose four or five displays, so we’re excited about that,” Luton said.
Luton said they receive three quotes with Open Sky being the lowest at $70,000. The money will come from the hotel/motel fund.
Also approved was a restructuring of the fire services dispatch. Fire Chief Jeremy Wallen said the numbers of calls have increased from over 9,300 in 2023 to over 20,300 in 2024. But the staffing and structure has not changed. The increase in calls is due to the county now dispatching for not only Columbia County Fire Rescue, but the Harlem Fire Department, Grovetown Fire Department and Gold Cross EMS.
The request is to promote one communications officer to manager, promote four communications officers to SRO communications officer and hire three additional communications officers to increase the staffing to three personnel per shift.
County Manager Scott Johnson said the county is going to be talking to the cities about having some kind of recognition for the compensation for the work that is being done.
The CES Committee also approved moving forward with an agreement to host the USA BMX Gold Cup Southeast finals in 2026.
Public Works and Engineering Services Committee
The Public Works and Engineering Services Committee approved an independent contractor agreement with Hydrologics, Inc. to pilot a zero discharge flushing program.
Stacey Gordon, Water Utility director, said currently when there are water issues and the liens need to be flushed, the county will open fire hydrants and flush the line. However, this pilot program will allow them to try something different.
“When we want to clean lines in neighborhoods with this technology, we’ll be able to go in and they’ll bring in a large truck, it has big tanks and pumps and filters on the truck and they will, through fire hydrants increase the velocity…and will clean the lines and put the water back in,” Gordon said. “So, they’ll clean everything out of the line and the water will go right back in, so we’re not wasting water, we’re not dumping (it) on the ground.”
Gordon said this is a possible alternative to ice pigging, which can only be done in the winter, whereas this can be done anytime it is needed.
“The cost of the pilot will have them come out for two weeks and have them go through several neighborhoods and do the cleaning, the cost is $91,722 and will be paid out of our distribution general line code,” Gordon said.
