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By Sarah Brown – Managing Editor

Crisp County board of Commission met on February 13, 2024 at 9 am at the Crisp County Government Center. Chairman James R. Dowdy, III called the meeting to order welcoming everyone. Rev. Tania Montero gave the invocation and Clark Harrell led the Pledge of Allegiance. The agenda was adopted and the board approved last meetings minute. The meeting started with an update from Sheriff Billy Hancock, they are getting ready for their accreditation that happens every 3 years. They have also completed their annual pursuit review, since they implemented the accreditation program in 2018 they have been involved in 103 vehicle pursuits with 26 of them being in 2023. Within the accreditation program they are required to keep track of all uses of force including Tasers, physical force it is documented, along with reviewing body cams. The firing range is almost complete, and they will be able to start using that for training. They do plan to eventually open in up to public for firearms familiarization course and a couple times a year open range with a range master. They are fully staffed on their sworn side; they have one deputy that is deploying to Egypt and another one that will be gone 4-6 weeks for training. Over the weekend they received news they will receive a $640,000 grant for air conditioning units for the jail. They recently had ACCG come in and do risk management for all administration and main staff, he has asked them to come back to do a smaller class for every employee at the Sheriff’s Office.

We then heard from Jim Livingston from River Valley Regional Commission to speak on the work they have been doing and plan to do within the community. They are also currently part of the Comprehensive Plan for both the County and City. Following we heard from Justin Elliot from Mauldin & Jenkins in regards to the counties fiscal year end audit (June 2023), that has been completed and reported to have gone well. Chris Hewitt from Crisp County Power Commission was in attendance and was asked to give an update on the water levels, he mentioned that all the repairs have been completed and they have started to increase the water levels again but due to the amount of rain received this week they need to drop the water level approx. 3 feet.

There was a public hearing in regards to a special use request for a butcher shop/deer processing facility located on GA Hwy. 33. This item was resolved under new business resolution 2024-002 to allow the SU for Butcher Shop/Deer Processing Facility.

We also heard the financial report from Sherrie Leverett and the County Administrators Report from Clark Harrell.