Next year Lowndes County Board of Supervisors will get a $2,000 per year pay bump.
Friday morning the board voted unanimously to give itself a pay raise, effective in January.
County Administrator Jay Fisher told the supervisors a law passed a few years ago gives them the authority to bump their pay in specific years. 2024 is one of them.
“In 2022 the legislature passed legislation that would allow boards to increase supervisors’ pay on a graduated scale over multiple years,” Fisher said. “The legislature requires each board to vote on the raises separately as they come up.”
For counties with an assessed valuation of between $1 billion and $2 billion, the current salary is $52,000, Fisher said.
“For the term beginning Jan. 1, 2024, the salary can be bumped by an amount not to exceed $2,000,” Fisher said. “That would be for the incoming board to be seated in January.”
District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks moved, with a second by District 4 Supervisor Jeff Smith, to approve the pay raise. It passed unanimously.
Two of those supervisors — District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders and District 3 Supervisor John Holliman — will not benefit from the raises, as they did not seek re-election. Their successors, Matt Furnari and Andy Williamson, will get the new rate of pay once they are sworn in.
The legislation gives the supervisors the ability to raise their pay one more time — by as much as $4,000 — in 2028.
The supervisors last gave themselves a raise in 2022, when the law was passed. Prior to that, supervisor pay ranged from $46,000 to $47,000. At the time, it had been around 10 years since the rate of pay had changed, according to President and District 2 Supervisor Trip Hairston.
Caledonia Town Hall
The supervisors voted unanimously to deed their half of the Caledonia Town Hall back to the town of Caledonia.
Fisher explained half the building was deeded to the town of Caledonia, and half to Lowndes County, back in 1973. Since then, the county has handled major maintenance on the building, including putting a new roof on it during Fiscal Year 2023.
Thursday morning the county put an end to that arrangement, giving the town ownership of the whole enchilada.
Caledonia Mayor Betty Darnell told The Dispatch Friday morning the handover had been in the works for a while.
“I think they just decided they didn’t want to be in the real estate business,” Darnell said. “They didn’t want to own a building that they weren’t in.”
Darnell said the county only handled major repairs — such as the roof — while the town handled the day-to-day maintenance.
“I feel like we’ve been a good partner with the town,” Hairston said. “We put a new roof on the building, and now we’re giving them full ownership of it.”
Sanders noted that the county also owns the building the Caledonia Marshal’s Office is in, as well as the Caledonia Community Center.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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