Commissioners hear EMA update
By Deborah Bennett Millen News Editor

Bob Fields, local EMA director, gave the Jenkins County Commissioners an update on the activities of his office during the group's Tuesday, Dec. 19, meeting.

Fields noted that training of local first responders was progressing with exercises having been conducted on hazard materials, vehicle extractions and train safety. A school safety plan had been developed and the community had been certified as "Storm Ready", he said. He listed the top two natural disaster threats to Jenkins County as flooding and tornadoes, but noted that a direct hit on Savannah by a major hurricane could also adversely affect the local area as the storm moved inland.

The issue of hazardous materials passing through Jenkins County on Norfolk Southern railcars and trucks was discussed with Fields outlining mutual aid agreements established with surrounding counties.

In other matters, David Barron of the South Jenkins District VI VFD, Inc. addressed the commissioners concerning recent contributions by the county to other volunteer fire departments as matching funds for grants they had received. Barron asked that his newly organized department be "treated fairly" when it begins applying for grants. He asked for a written guarantee that the commissioners would give the same consideration to the South Jenkins department as other volunteer fire departments.

The commissioners did not act on the request, noting that they intended to include funds in their 2007-2008 budget for the purpose of aiding local volunteer fire departments.

"We are committed to making these volunteer fire departments work," said chairman James Henry.

Barron also asked that it be publicly noted that the South Jenkins department had not received any tax money from the county, stating that he had relayed this information to several people who had attributed recent property tax increases to the county's support of local volunteer fire departments.

Other actions taken by the commissioners included:

• Agreed to permit and incorporate voluntary "leave sharing" among employees into the county Personnel Policy for extreme cases of accidents or illnesses;

• Adopted Personnel Policy after third reading, with several noted revisions to be made;

• Clarified that a recent decision to allow the carry over of earned vacation days for three additional months was applicable to all county employees and not just employees of the sheriff's department and emergency medical services;

• Agreed to accept sealed bids for repair and painting work needed at the Jenkins County Head Start building;

• Approved a request to provide health insurance for the Jenkins County Recreation Department Director with the recreation department to pay premiums out of its budget, pending approval of insurance company;

• Approved Rural Transit grant; and

• Acted on a request from the Jenkins County Tax Commissioner for additional help during tax season, approving overtime pay for employees working over 40 hours.