MOULTRIE — Colquitt County Commission agreed Monday to settle a lawsuit filed last year by a company that provided health care at the jail and correctional institution over a three-year period.
Commissioners unanimously voted to the $7,000 settlement with the Chattanooga-based Southern Health Partners. The commission closed the meeting for about 20 minutes to discuss the litigation, and after reopening the public meeting agreed to accept the settlement.
The company filed suit in 2008 seeking about $38,000 it claims was owed to it after the county declined to renew the contract at the end of 2007.
County Attorney Lester Castellow said Tuesday that the county agreed it owed some truing-up costs at the end of the contract period but the amount was substantially less than the amount the company claimed. It countersued seeking documents that would substantiate the company’s claims, he said.
“We always said we owed them some money,” he said. “Over the course of the last several months we have examined documents. We worked closer and closer. Finally we reached an agreement.
“The bottom line was they sued us for $38,000 and some change and we settled for $7,000.”
Castellow said that the documents finalizing the settlement could be signed within about a week.
Castellow said Southern Health Partners provided health care for inmates for from 2005 through 2007, but commissioners had “disagreements” over accounting with the company that ultimately lead them not to renew the contract.
Commissioner Billy Herndon said following Monday’s meeting that since canceling Southern Health Partners’ contract the county has been providing medical care to inmates.
Also on Monday the commission agreed to continue discussions on the county’s pension system with a work session at 6 p.m. Nov. 23.
The county created a pension board in July 2008 and has met to discuss the issue several times since.
In July, commissioners noted that the pension plan began in 2008 with a balance in its self-funded plan of $7.41 million and ended the year with $6.28 million. Contributions and administrative costs also had climbed in recent years, accounting for 13.3 percent of total payroll costs, an amount commissioners said is not sustainable.
The county also took a hit in stock-market losses, and as of July the plan was only 69.6 percent funded.
In other business Monday the commission:
• Approved a renewal of a lease agreement with the Georgia Department of Human Services. Under the lease the state will pay $32,753 per month for the use of the Department of Family and Childrens Services office at 449 N. Main St.
• Approved the purchase and installation of five groundwater monitoring wells at the closed landfill at a cost of $13,307.
The work will be performed by TTL Inc., a technical and environmental firm that has been overseeing monitoring at the site.
The new testing wells are part of a corrective plan of action for the landfill. Three of the testing wells will be placed along the Ochlocknee River and two more will be placed north of the landfill.
• Agreed to accept the low bid of $489,894 for resurfacing Old Albany Road.
The county will pay for the project with $296,849 from the Georgia Department of Transportation and $193,045 in special purpose local option sales tax funds.
Other bids tendered were $499,423 from The Scruggs Co., $531,300 from Oxford Construction Co., and $544,236 from Ross Construction Co. Inc.
• Accepted a bid of $96,595 for an F-750 Ford truck and fuel body with 900-gallon fuel tank from Transport Equipment Co. in Albany.
Local News
County settles lawsuit
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CORRECTION: DUI charge
In a Jan. 28 report, The Observer said Ronald Craig Bass, 50, 4411 Dunn Road, Hartsfield, was charged Jan. 26 with driving under the influence, open container violation and probation violation in connection with a minor wreck on Camilla Highway. Excluding the probation violation charge, that information came from a Moultrie police report of a November 2001 incident.
Bass was charged with probation violation Thursday because all the penalties from the 2001 incident had not been paid. He paid the remaining penalties following his arrest, according to a Moultrie police report.
The Observer regrets the error. -
Peanut Commission Research Report Day will be Feb. 8
The Georgia Peanut Commission will hold the annual Research Report Day Wednesday, Feb. 8, beginning at 9 a.m. at the National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory (NESPAL), located on the University of Georgia Tifton campus. The event provides growers and industry representatives an opportunity to hear the latest reports on research projects funded by GPC in 2011.
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Boy Scouts help the needy with Scouting for Food program
Scouts of the Suwannee River Area Council, Boy Scouts of America will be collecting food today to help the hungry in the council’s 13-county service area, which includes Colquitt County.
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