By Samantha Sinclair
The Habersham County Board of Commissioners approved several agreements — two of which it had already approved as one document last month — and agreed to set aside matching funds for a potential grant at its regular meeting Monday night.
The board had to approve agreements with Kimley-Horn again for airport planning services and airport engineering and design services. Commissioners originally approved them at last month’s commission meeting. Finance Director Kiani Holden said that when the agreement was sent to the Georgia Department of Transportation, the agency said the agreement had to be split and approved as two separate documents.
As a result, they followed through with that request Monday night.
In addition, commissioners approved an automatic aid agreement with the City of Cornelia for fire response within the Demorest city limits and Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) amendments for animal control services with Alto, Baldwin, Cornelia, Demorest and Mt. Airy.
Cornelia previously had an agreement with Demorest for automatic aid. Since the county took over fire services for Demorest at the beginning of this year, a new automatic aid agreement was made for Cornelia to continue to be automatically dispatched to assist in serving Demorest.
For the animal control IGAs, the amendment moves the adjudication of citations issued by county animal control officers from the county’s magistrate court to the municipal court. Clarkesville is the only city that has not approved the amendment as it did not have a meeting this month.
While county policy usually allows grants to be applied for without prior approval, Holden thought one needed approval due to the matching funds required. If approved for the Land and Water Conservation Fund grant, the county would have to match 50 percent, or $420,535.57.
The county budgets only $100,000 per year for matching funds. Holden said due to the approval process and subsequent bid and material purchasing process, it could be a few years before the matching funds are needed for the project. The county would put aside budgeted matching funds each year to accumulate for the project.
If the county is awarded the grant, it will be used to improve lighting at parks and recreation fields.