Bulloch County commissioners on Tuesday approved a letter backing the county Emergency Management Agency’s application for a grant of up to $15 million from a state fund based on the 2024 Hurricane Helene disaster declaration. Any funding received would be for a system for disposal of septic tank waste.

EMA Director Corey Kemp briefly stated the title of the grant and its purpose, but there was no discussion among or questions from commissioners before their 3-1 vote.

The grant application is being made to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, or DCA, for a grant up to $15 million from the 2024 Hurricane Helene Resilience Fund. All 61 counties covered by the 2024 disaster declaration are eligible to apply, Kemp said in a phone interview Monday.

His application seeks a grant to help the county install a septic tank waste processing system, with the trademarked Raptor system mentioned in the letter, which was awaiting commission Chairman David Bennett’s signature.

“We’re pursuing it as a mitigation project because when Tropical Storm Debby came through with all that rain, all of those septic systems were backing up,” Kemp said Monday.

Except for Portal’s small wastewater treatment plant, the nearest facility regularly accepting septic tank waste from Bulloch County-based haulers is near Savannah, so the Bulloch County government has been planning to obtain capacity of its own.

According to a Sept. 11 report by Capitol Beat News Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded Georgia almost $500 million to help improve water infrastructure after Hurricane Helene. The largest portion of the money, nearly $360 million, is earmarked for drinking water systems. But the next largest portion, almost $125 million, is for wastewater.

Prior $24M in grants

Disposal of waste from septic tanks is also one of the purposes of a $20 million state appropriation through the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, or GEFA, to Bulloch County, announced in July. The county also secured a federal EPA grant last year for a related purpose.

As previously reported, a portion of the GEFA money may also be used for sewer line installation at the Statesboro-Bulloch County Airport.

Another stated project for the GEFA funding is construction of a sewer main and metering station on the south end of the county to connect to Bryan County’s system.

The Environmental Protection Agency money will purchase treatment capacity for Bulloch County at the Bryan County Regional Wastewater Plant adjacent to the Daniel Defense factory. Access for commercial septic haulers was a top priority in Bulloch’s plan.

The Raptor system would filter and “pre-treat” the septic waste before it goes into the sewer treatment plant, Kemp said after Tuesday’s meeting.

Seeks more help

The up to $15 million grant now being sought through the DCA is separate from and would be in addition to the GEFA money, Kemp said. The letter states that the total estimated cost of the complete septic disposal system project is approximately $30 million.
“While the county is requesting $15 million, Bulloch County will accept any amount awarded by the DCA and will utilize the awarded funds to advance the project to the greatest extent possible,” the letter states.

Commissioner Ray Mosley made the motion to authorize the grant support letter, seconded by Commissioner Anthony Simmons.

Car for airport

Without commenting on the issue, Commissioner Nick Newkirk cast the one vote against issuing the letter.

But this item followed immediately after he had also voted “no” on an unrelated matter, the purchase of a new, roughly $30,000 automobile for the Statesboro-Bulloch County Airport using revenue from the T-SPLOST, or transportation purposes sales tax. Newkirk was outspoken in his opposition to using T-SPLOST funds for this purpose.

The two commissioners whose terms expire at year-end — Toby Conner, who lost his re-election bid in the Republican primary, and Timmy Rushing, who did not seek re-election — were absent Tuesday morning. So, votes on other motions were unanimous at 4-0, with Chairman Bennett also present but no tiebreaker votes required.

At the beginning of the 8:30 a.m. meeting, the only item on the agenda under “new business” for a separate motion and vote was the support letter for the grant. But seven items, including minutes of past meetings but also several contracts and a two-year update of policies for use of the Georgia Crime Information Center, were grouped under “consent agenda” for a potential group motion and single vote.

However, commissioners can ask that any consent agenda item be moved to “new business” for separate consideration. Newkirk had this done with consent Item 5, the purchase of a 2027 Chevrolet Equinox from Alan Jay Fleet Sales at a state-contract discount price of $29,582.30. The Statesboro-Bulloch County Airport management had requested this purchase.

An Equinox is a midsize SUV. When Newkirk asked what its purpose would be, Airport Manager Kathy Boykin explained it would be a “courtesy vehicle,” used to provide transportation into town and back for visiting pilots and business travelers.

Kristie King, the county’s chief financial officer, noted that Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds can be used for “maintenance and operating” costs “for transportation purposes.” The airport was designated for funding in the referendum ballot items that authorized T-SPLOST and the agreements on how the revenue is divided among the county and cities.

Before the consent agenda, the commissioners had heard a presentation by Assistant County Manager Crystal Dawson and County Engineer Ron Nelson for proposed changes to the county’s policies on road paving. Citizens pulling for the county to follow through on some long-listed paving projects for dirt roads were present.

Newkirk said he wasn’t saying anything against Boykin or the airport or the need for a courtesy car.

“But to the public I think it looks bad whenever you have Banks Creek Church (Road) residents, and we have two of them here today …,” he said, “and they’ve been up here, I think one lady last week said for 20 years that she’s been trying to get this road paved … and we don’t have the money to fix that, but then we’ve got money for $30,000 for a vehicle,” Newkirk said.

He made a motion to deny the purchase “for the reason that T-SPLOST should not be used to buy vehicles,” but that motion died for lack of a second.

The airport is seeing more need for a courtesy vehicle of this size, and a truck the airport has been providing for this purpose would revert to use by the airport crew for maintenance, Boykin said.

The purchase was budgeted from T-SPLOST this fiscal year in the airport category, King confirmed.

“On the referendum that the voters voted on, there is money for roads and there is money for the airport, and legally because the voters, the citizens, voted on it, we cannot use airport money for dirt roads,” she said.

Commissioner Ray Davis made the motion, seconded by Commissioner Ray Mosley, to approve the courtesy car purchase, and it also passed 3-1, with Newkirk opposed.