Many new septic system applicants will now have to provide a recorded deed or plat with their septic application.
At a March 14 Gilmer Board of Health meeting, board members adopted a new policy requiring property owners with lots measuring 5-acres or less to submit a recorded plat/survey or deed (with a date of recording by the Clerk of Court) when applying for a septic system. The policy says such documentation will be required for those size lots unless the property is in a subdivision.
Separate properties being combined or divided to make new parcels can cause difficulty with certain septic inspections, noted Andrea Mathis, Gilmer’s environmental health manager. Having the required deed/plat policy in place should fix some of that, she said.
“It’s not unusual that we go out on existing systems and find the house on one property and the septic on another because it’s been divided,” said Ray King, district environmental health director.
King said the need for the policy stems from “some surveyors who wanted us to issue permits without recording with the county.”
“For us, that’s not OK,” King said. “We have to know which property we’re issuing a permit for and where the property lines are.”
Mathis said the office has heard feedback from some surveyors that when a survey is done and a new piece of property is created, “that’s a legally binding document.”
“Sure, it’s legally binding. But in terms of government and making the property legal for recordkeeping, we ask that property be recorded at the Superior Court office in order to make it official,” she added.
The new policy comes at time when the county’s environmental health office is seeing a continuing uptick in requests for new septic systems. During the most recent 90-day quarter, the office issued 330 septic permit applications, noted Mathis.
“We’ve actually seen a little slowdown in permitting. But when you’re going a million miles an hour and, all of a sudden, you’re going 800,000 miles an hour, you don’t really notice it but a little,” she added. “That’s kind of where we are (with) getting septic applications. We (get them) every day and continue to get applications for large subdivisions.”
Mathis said the county plat fee is nominal at $30.
“Our district is like 60 percent more on activities per environmentalist than the average environmentalist in the state. A lot of that has to do with the number of septic systems,” said King.
In other news ...
﹣ Dr. Zachary Taylor, district health director, said Gilmer County is now at a low level of COVID-19.
“We’re all glad for that. There’s a wall of immunity our communities have built up through either vaccination or natural infection. We hope that holds, (but) it depends on what types of variants may arise in the future,” he added.
The local health department currently offers all available versions of COVID shots and boosters, including the most recent bivalent Omicron booster.
“At this time, there’s no new booster available, but there probably will be (another) booster for COVID available in the fall,” Taylor said.
﹣ The local health department has seen good results with a traveling health clinic that operates out of the health department parking lot once a month, noted Krystal Sumner, nurse manager, in her report to the health board.
The Bethesda Mobile Health, of Canton, offers primary care and other services at the health department the third Wednesday of each month, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
“They do primary care, adult physical exams, medications, chronic disease management and diabetes care. They also provide referrals for mental health services, and also provide information about opioid abuse and the use of Narcan,” said Sumner.
“Any patient who needs family planning, immunization or travel (immunizations), they refer to us. Any patients who come here who are uninsured or can’t afford to see a doctor for primary care, we refer to them,” she added.