Could passage of TSPLOST help?
Gilmer County voters who didn’t early vote early enough in Georgia’s Presidential Preference Primary saw their chance to select a candidate dashed as part of preventive measures that arose with the Coronavirus. Presidential preference will be added, though, to the May primary.
However, a more pivotal issue locally is what also appears on the May 19 ballot — the addition of a 1-cent tax on each dollar that would be dedicated to Gilmer’s transportation needs called the TSPLOST, or transportation special-purpose, local-option sales tax.
Charlie Paris has stated the most calls he receives as chairman of the Gilmer Board of Commissioners are about the condition of roads in the county. He was asked in a recent interview what the issue is with roads, and if passage of a TSPLOST in a couple of months can help.
He immediately focused on road upkeep, especially in light of recent rains in the north Georgia mountain area.
“The big thing is the gravel roads we’ve got,” he began. “Every time we get a big rain — even though we may just have gone out and graded and graveled that road, and it may look wonderful — next thing you know, it’s just gullies. We’ve got nearly 200 miles of gravel road. So what happens is we go out and grade and gravel the roads, and we don’t get all 200 miles between rains … we start getting calls about roads gullied, (how they’re) tough to get up and down — and it’s one we’ve just done recently.”
Paris called having to start all over “just a repetitive pattern” that gets frustrating.
“We just can’t get a situation right now where we’ve got enough dry weather,” he explained. “And that’s another thing too. We have to wait until it dries up to grade and gravel, otherwise we’re just spreading mud around. So it’s kind of a vicious cycle. The only thing I know that can fix that is if we can pave those roads, not necessarily asphalt, but tar-and-chip (pavement). So that’s what’s behind this TSPLOST push, is to have the money to pave these roads.
“I don’t know if we can get all the roads paved, because not everybody wants their roads paved. But if we can get to where we only have 20-30 miles of gravel road, we could maintain that OK.”
Paris said paved roads have their own maintenance problems, primarily potholes.
“If we didn’t have to worry about having two road crews out full time trying to grade and gravel the roads, we could buy a couple more pothole patchers and we could put folks out there and keep these potholes fixed,” he said.
So is it a manpower issue?
“It kinda is,” he replied. “In 2008, we had 32 people on the road crew, and of course, when the economy tanked that got reduced to about half. So in 2015 we had 16 people on the road crew, and now we’ve raised that up to 30 people. We’ve made that improvement. But in terms of the paving — particularly tar-and-chip, which we can do ourselves — it’s more of a just flat-out money issue than it is manpower right now. And equipment, which equates to money as well.”
Paris was asked how long it would take for crews to get caught up if the weather cleared.
“I don’t think we could, under the current conditions,” he said. “With that much work, even if weather (was not a factor) ... we normally have two graders and two crews, and we try to put them on opposite ends of the county. And the idea is to grade and gravel this road, and then go to the next nearest road, then grade and gravel it and go down that circle.
“At some point, we go back around and start grading and graveling the same roads again. The problem we’ve got is even when we’ve got dry weather we can’t get around 200 miles of road before we get rain. And I’m talking about even if we’re dry. Unless you’re in a yearlong drought, it’s just not going to happen.”
Paris called fixing and re-fixing gravel roads, paving others and possibly putting another motor grader in the budget a “balancing act.”
“A lot of it we won’t figure out until May when we might have a TSPLOST (passage),” he said.
Are TSPLOST funds limited in their usage, like a regular SPLOST that governments utilize?
“TSPLOST funds can only be used for transportation,” Paris noted. “That means we could use it to buy a motor grader, paving equipment (and) pothole patchers. We can buy equipment with it, but it has to be transportation related.”
What about repairs — purchase of gravel, spreading gravel and manpower, as examples?
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” he said enthusiastically. “We can use it to pave roads, we can use it to repair roads that are paved. We can use it for anything to keep our roads up. The other thing, too, that gets forgotten about this — and I’m bad about forgetting to mention it myself — is in addition to roads, TSPLOST covers bridges. So we’ve got a number of bridges now where DOT has reduced the weight limit on them for various reasons. And (the TSPLOST) would allow us to come in and make the necessary repairs or upgrades to bridges, where we wouldn’t have those weight limitations.”
TSPLOST funds can even be used for salaries of road department employees, but Paris called that “an incredibly bad idea.”
“Because the TSPLOST will be a one-time, five-year thing, and you don’t want to get used to paying a bunch of salaries out of it and then all of a sudden it’s gone, and you still have those salaries you gotta pay,” he pointed out.
“So that’s a road we don’t want to go down, if you pardon the pun.”
Paris said originally there were plans to have town halls “in various corners of the county” to explain — but not advocate for on the taxpayers’ dime — the TSPLOST. But Coronavirus concerns have nixed that idea. He said a Facebook page may be created with an FAQ (frequently-asked questions) section, along with a way for citizens to send in any other questions they may have.
“At this point, we can’t start gathering a lot of people together for a question-and-answer with TSPLOST,” he said of COVID-19 virus concerns.
Update on county’s indebtedness
Gilmer County government pays a debt service on bonds in March and October each year. In March, the payment is around $3.4 million, and in October the payment is about $500,000.
The approximate total for 2020 is $3.998 million, and the total for 2021 is just over $3.946 million. As a side note, the county currently has funds set aside to pay the October ‘20 payment (March is already made), and also the March and October ‘21 payments.
The “big one” — general obligation bonds (new jail, library, animal shelter, fire stations, parking lot, some road paving, renovation of old library to Dalton State College, road department shop) — will be paid off in 2030. This was a $30 million bond approved by the voters.
The remainder — around $29 million in revenue bonds, issued by the Gilmer Building Authority — will be paid off in 2032. That includes the courthouse, commission office wing of the courthouse, more parking and a few other items that was less indebtedness, but only marginally.
Source: Chairman Charlie Paris, Gilmer Commission Board