The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors and the Board of Trustees of Lowndes County Reserve & Trust Fund, composed of the same membership, met Monday morning in consecutive meetings, with both groups having good news to report.
During the supervisors’ meeting, the board approved the county’s road plan for 2015 and expects that the recent drop in oil prices could allow the city to pave more roads than the plan indicates or provide additional striping, something county road manager Ronnie Burns pushed as he field questions from the board about the plan.
The county has budgeted $1.5 million for roads this year and while the amount of money budgeted did not increase, cheaper oil prices could mean the county could take on some additional road projects.
“I feel like we may be open to doing some more roads,” board president Harry Sanders said. “When you put out the bids you’ll probably get a lower price than what we budgeted for. If that’s the case, we might to be able to have an amended road plan that would allow us to pave more roads than we see in this plan.”
Burns said the county should also consider using that potential surplus to do more striping.
“That’s something we always hear about from residents,” Burns said. “When you’re driving or night or the weather is bad, the striping is really something people like to have. So if we have extra money, we may want to think about doing some more striping. There are a lot of roads in the county that could really use it.”
In the plan submitted and approved Monday, 54 roads have been selected for work, including asphalt overlay on 27 roads.
In other business, the supervisors agreed to consider recommendations from circuit court clerk Haley Salazar to designate two temporary voting precincts as permanent, as well as the consolidation of the Sale Elementary School precinct with the Columbus High School precinct.
“We only have about 600 registered voters at the Sale precinct and it’s my recommendation to close the Sale precinct and move those voters over to Columbus High,” Salazar said. “The Columbus High precinct is big enough to accommodate those voters and it’s just a few blocks away, so we don’t think this would have any negative effect on people. But from our end, it would save us money on poll workers and security.”
Salazar asked the board to make the temporary precincts at Antioch Baptist Church and the Lowndes County School District office the permanent precinct. The two sites have been used because of construction at Columbus Air Force Base and West Lowndes precincts.
“Both of these have worked out really well and they both are happy to be permanent precincts,” Salazar said.
The board will vote on the suggestions during its Feb. 13 meeting.
After the board adjourned, the group met at the Trust Fund board, where county administrator Ralph Billingsley proposed withdrawing $942,000 in interest income form the county’s $30-million hospital trust fun.
“Our two investment firms show a current value of $31,433,031,” Billingsley said. “By law we can withdraw up to 3 percent as long as the balance doesn’t go below $30 million. As of now, the maximum amount we could withdraw would be (about $942,000). I recommend that we ask the board of supervisors to withdrawn an even number, $942,000.”
It would be the second withdrawal since the legislation allowing the board to use broader investment options in October of 2013.
“Since that date, we’ve make $2,357,031 over that 15-month period,” Billingsley said. “It’s been a great move for the county.”
The supervisors will vote on making that withdrawal at its Feb. 13 meeting.
If the supervisors approve the withdrawal, the trust fund balance would be $30.4 million. Future withdrawals could not cut the balance below that amount.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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