City Council takes action on several projects
City Council March 8, 2022
PICKENS, Ga. — The Jasper City Council met on March 7 to discuss several 2022 events, approve bids for several projects, and to recognize an employee of the Jasper Police Department.
City Projects
The council continued discussions on the proposed downtown bathroom project. The council was provided with drawings of the bathrooms, but Councilman Sonny Proctor raised concerns over the safety and ordinance compliance of the plans. At the recommendation of City Manager Sonia Jammes, the council voted to table the drawings and discuss them with the designer during a later meeting. After the vote, Proctor noted his desire to move the project along as quickly as possible.
Conceptual drawings for updates to the Fire Station, however, were approved unanimously by the council. Councilman Jim Looney noted that the drawings had been through both Public Safety and the Fire Department and were ready for further action.
Conceptual drawings for the Jasper Fire Station were approved by the council.
City Manager Sonia Jammes introduced an agenda item that would enter the city into a contract for work on Gennett Drive “with great pleasure and enthusiasm.” The council approved a $249,000 bid that gave an estimated completion date of 90 days after the contract is signed. Jammes said, “If it is approved tonight, then I will go ahead and get that contract signed tomorrow, and we will try and get that alleviated as soon as we can for our citizens.”
Taking action on other projects, the council also approved a $24,170 bid to dredge Cove Creek, a $24,995 bid to pave JL White Drive, and an $11,613 purchase of a wet well pump.
Events
North GA Family Partners will be hosting three of the events approved during the meeting. Super-Hero Day at Lee Newton Park, hosted on June 16, is one of the events NGFP received approval for. June Ash, NGFP’s Executive Director, says local first responders are invited to the event “to come meet our families in hopes that maybe the kids, if they ever have to have the police, or fire department, or EMT show up at their house, maybe they’re not so afraid of them.” The council also approved the organization’s Jeep Fest Camping event from Aug. 31 through Sept. 5, and a long table event on Sept. 10.
Good Samaritan Health and Wellness, a “not-for-profit, Community Health Center, which provides health services to our community regardless of ability to pay or insurance status,” also had an event approved by the council. They plan to celebrate their twentieth anniversary with a family carnival at Lee Newton Park, said Development and Communications Manager Leslie Long: “We wanted to do something for the community, just to thank our patients and those who’ve supported us for the last twenty years.” Long also said they would also like to include other non-profits at the event, currently planned for June 11.
The last set of events to be approved by the council will be hosted by Jasper’s DDA. The “Second Saturday” events are planned for May, June, July, and August’s second Saturday. Chairman Jack Dunn spoke at the meeting, explaining the DDA would host the events with the intent to bring more visitors into downtown Jasper and experience what the town has to offer.
Other Business
Interim Police Chief Matt Dawkins recognized Lieutenant Chad Childers during the March 7 meeting. He spoke about a time Childers had bought groceries for an elderly citizen who was living on a fixed income. “Chad’s generous actions speaks volume to his character … to help ease the burden of someone he knew was in need and had never met. This type of action has a huge impact on the citizens within the City of Jasper. Your selfless act is the epitome of human kindness,” he said. During the committee reports portion of the meeting, Dawkins noted that during February the Jasper Police Department experienced a 16 percent increase in answered calls with a total of 794 calls, and also experienced an increase in disorderly conduct and domestic calls.
City Council approves Fire Department’s grant application
City Council January 4, 2022
PICKENS, Ga. — Jasper’s city council met for the first time in the new year on Jan. 3. Among the items on their agenda were several appointment approvals and an approval of a grant application to benefit the Jasper Fire Department.
Kim Goldener spoke on behalf of the Jasper Fire Department, requesting the council’s approval to submit an application to receive grant funding from FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Program. She explained, “This is a nationwide preparedness program, and what it does is it’s designed to fund critically needed, life-saving equipment, particularly in our case, when it is replacing obsolete, out-of-date, non-compliant equipment.”
Goldener further explained that Fire Chief Steve Roper and Assistant Fire Chief Von Headrick have identified several areas of need, totaling over $250,000 worth of new equipment. This equipment, she said, will “fall under FEMA’s high-priority status for funding.” The department’s application will include requests for 23 new self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) units. The new equipment would replace the department’s current SCBA units from 2007 and 1992, Goldener told the council, which are “more than two cycles … out of compliance.”
Continuing, she noted the application would also request new fill stations and a cascade system to reduce the time spent filling oxygen cylinders. Finally, Goldener said the department would request new vehicle extraction tools. She explained the need to replace the current sets, saying: “They are more than 15 years old. They are not designed to work with new vehicle technology, with new materials that are in newer vehicles, and so it adds to the amount of time that, frankly, we don’t have when we’re trying to get somebody out of a vehicle.”
The total cost of the requested equipment would be $271,923.68. With FEMA’s grant assistance, however, the cost to the city would total $12,948.75. “This is … another example of our investment into public safety under this administration, we’ve had leaps and bounds,” council member Kirk Raffield said before the council passed the approval unanimously.
Other Business:
The council approved several appointments during the meeting. Member Kirk Raffield was among those. Raffield was nominated to serve as the city’s Mayor Pro Tempore and was elected unanimously by the council for a two year term. Newly elected council members Anne Sneeve and Sonny Proctor were also sworn in at the meeting. The council also R. David Syfan as city attorney for another year. On the Municipal Court, Judge Robert Sneed, Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Hudson, and Public Defender Cortney Stuart all received approval for service for the year of 2022.
The city council also established Suite C, 55 GG Lovell St., Jasper, Ga. as a permanent polling place for the city’s municipal elections.