New 911 Center to be built for $3.8 million

Regardless, Collins had plenty of county business teed up, including a notice of award for a contract to build the new Union County E-911 Center adjacent to Fire Department Headquarters on Shoe Factory Road.

Winkler & Winkler Inc., a Blairsville-based general contracting firm, won the contract and will complete the job for $3,868,241.

County Purchasing Agent Pam Hawkins explained the award and bidding process, noting that the request for proposals on the project went live Jan. 29, which resulted in 13 contractor proposals being submitted by the March 12 deadline.

“We have spent the last four or five weeks reviewing these proposals,” Hawkins said. “We asked contractors to submit a qualifications proposal separately from their price, and we reviewed who’s qualified and who’s not for such a project and then opened the pricing proposals.

“We finally narrowed it down to award it to Winkler & Winkler. Out of the 13 proposals we received, the prices ranged from $3.743 million to $4,646,792. We learned a long time ago to not go with the lowest bid, because you kind of get what you pay for.

“We had a contractor years ago that we went with the low bid because it was a situation where we had to, and that general contractor failed to pay their subcontractors, and we had to the bond money involved. So, we try to find the most qualified for the best price, and that’s what we did.

“The building is approximately 8,000 total square feet. The bottom of the facility will be the 911 Dispatch Center; they’re going to have a brand-new, great facility, and we’re going to be super proud of that, and they’re going to be excited to be in it. It should last a very long time.”

Upstairs will feature about 4,500 square feet of space to house the 911 Mapping Office and serve other uses, like records storage, much better than the repurposed old nursing home facility where the Dispatch Center currently resides on Hunt Martin Street, Hawkins said.

And while a project start date had not been set as of the county meeting, 911 Director David Dyer said afterward that construction is expected to begin “as soon as possible,” hopefully to be completed with move-in after 18 months.

The contract only includes building construction, and the county will be purchasing all new equipment for the center, but Dyer said the timing should work out to coincide with contract renewals coming due for new equipment, potentially incorporating more of the latest technology known as Next Gen 911.

As opposed to the current 911 Center that is situated in the basement of the decades-old former nursing home/hospital facility, the new two-story building will be built to specifications to meet the needs of a modern dispatch center for years to come.

“The two main areas of the Dispatch Center that we are most concerned about are the actual dispatch room where the dispatchers are going to spend most of their time,” Dyer said, “and the server room, which has got all of our high-priced equipment in it. The rest of it is essentially an office building.

“So, we wanted to put a lot of emphasis in the Dispatch Center and that server room to make sure that our equipment is protected and our dispatchers can do their job and have a good place to do it.”

911 Lt. Millie Baxter, who runs the day-to-day operations at the center, said the new building will expand on current capabilities to enable even more operators to work at once, and dispatchers are excited to transition to a facility designed specifically for their important work.

Also in the April 17 meeting, Collins welcomed multiple dispatchers to thank them with a proclamation declaring April 13-19 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in Union County.

HORSE ARENA LEASE

Collins accepted a lease agreement with the Union County Saddle Club to formalize Horse Arena responsibility as belonging to club members, who have always run the county-owned facility anyway.

The one-year lease will cost the club a total of $3,000 and includes the arena, concession stand and parking areas, with the money to be used by the county to offset the taxpayer expense to cover the facility with the required property liability insurance.

As part of the new arrangement, which reportedly satisfies both parties, the Saddle Club has also taken over all expenses at the arena, including full payment of utilities, the lion’s share of which was covered by the county in the past.

Together, these changes will save taxpayers thousands of dollars per year – a goal Collins campaigned on generally before winning election last November.

OTHER BUSINESS

Collins amended the agreement with the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank to extend by a year the expiration date to spend down a $1 million grant to help pay for the roundabout at Pat Haralson Drive and Deep South Farm Road.

“This gives us some additional time to move forward with the project and still have access to this money,” Collins said. The roundabout will benefit motorists at the busy intersection that features traffic to and from Union General Hospital and the Union County Transfer Station.

Collins also accepted a renegotiated lease agreement for the Fire Station off Jones Creek Road. The agreement has been $500 a month for many years, and the updated agreement will be $750 a month for a term of at least three years, to be paid by the county to property owner W.C. Nelson.

The commissioner enacted three ordinance revisions pertaining to alcoholic beverages, short-term rentals and the Construction Board of Adjustment and Appeals. These revisions followed the standard process of first and second readings with public hearings in recent months.

Additionally, Collins issued four other proclamations in the meeting: Child Abuse Prevention Month for April 2025; Sexual Assault Awareness Month for April 2025; Patriots’ Day as April 19, 2025; and Confederate Memorial Day as April 26, 2025.

County Manager Tony Hughes made multiple announcements in his “County Operations Update,” including that: the installation of an emergency exit at Byers Road is moving forward; options are being reviewed to replace Canada Creek Bridge in Suches; the Meeks Park Swimming Pool has been converted to salt water to cut down on annual cleaning costs; the Byron Herbert Reece Farm & Heritage Center is open for the season; Poteete Creek Campground and Beach are also open; the Transfer Station now regularly offers document shredding; the Farmers Market will have an ATM this season; Department Heads are working on the next budget cycle; Hunter Von Hof has been hired to replace Gavin King as County Building & Development Director; and more.

County Finance Director Kay Wilcox led a brief presentation about the inverse relationship between property values and the county millage rate, which provides one explanation why Union County, with its relatively high property values, has one of the lowest millage rates in the state.

She also reported that the new floating homestead exemption authorized by the Georgia General Assembly last year and ratified by voters in November is now live and will result in lower property valuations for taxing purposes in the years ahead.

In his Commissioner’s Comments, Collins touched on the county’s ongoing efforts to complete a vehicle inventory, with county employees still attempting to locate about a dozen vehicles from the fleet that may have been auctioned off previously without being catalogued as such.

He also said the Farmers Market will be getting shopping carts this season, and he has plans of putting a small mill, cooking pan and sorghum cane patch nearby for live heritage demonstrations to promote the Sorghum in the Mountains Festival later this year.

During Q&A, a guest asked what Collins was doing to assist the financially distressed Senior Center. He said his office was working with Legacy Link on options, and he recommended people attend the upcoming Town Hall to express their concerns about this and anything else.

The Town Hall hosted by Union County Government will take place Tuesday, April 29, starting at 6 p.m. inside the Union County Sports Center at 519 Industrial Blvd. in Blairsville. The meeting will feature a panel of guests to facilitate discussion and take questions from the public.

DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

One topic that did not come up in the April 17 county meeting was the Union County Development Authority.

Collins dissolved the longstanding Development Authority in February, primarily citing costs and the lack of diversity among board leadership, and he said last month he hoped to have a re-formed authority up and running with a new board by the April meeting.

But the process is taking longer than anticipated and should be completed by the May 15 regular meeting, according to County Clerk Jennifer Mahan.

When Collins decided to dissolve the authority, he originally wanted to take his time in determining the need to re-form such a county agency.

But former authority board member Mike Kiernen of Panel Built informed Collins that, without the authority, he would not have access to the industrial revenue bonds he was planning to acquire to expand his business, which would create 75 new jobs in the county.

So, Collins contacted former county attorney Boyd Pettit, who has extensive experience with development authorities, and Pettit is working now to finalize a new authority with guidance from Collins to increase transparency and expand the board for greater community representation.

Mahan said the new authority will be set up in such a way as to preserve secrecy where it makes sense, for instance, concerning sensitive negotiation details, while ensuring the authority is “as transparent as possible” with the public and elected officials.

In terms of what the new Development Authority might pursue, Mahan said Collins has a particular interest in recruiting more manufacturing businesses to Union County, and the commissioner will decide later whether to hire a new director to run the authority.

County meetings are livestreamed at the “Union County, Georgia Government” Facebook page, where a recording of this month’s meeting can be found. In addition to county meetings and town halls, Collins said people are always welcome to come see him in his office at the courthouse.