$60.7 million SPLOST projects list unanimously approved

Published 12:30 pm Wednesday, September 13, 2017

TIFTON — A list of proposed SPLOST projects was unanimously approved by all parties at a joint meeting of the Tift County Board of Commissioners and the city councils of Omega, Tifton and Ty Ty at a joint meeting held Sept. 7.

All of the boards had a quorum except for Omega. The Omega City Council voted at a previous meeting to authorize Omega Mayor Ray Hunt to approve the project list and ballot language.

The project list, which was drawn up by Tifton City Manager Pete Pyrzenski and Tift County Manager Jim Carter, lists the distribution allocation of SPLOST collections up to $60,700,000.

The county will receive 58.81 percent, or approximately $35.7 million. County projects include:

• $3.1 million for public safety capital outlay and facility improvements

• $5.2 million for renovation and improvements to county buildings and a courthouse addition

• $12 million for road, street, drainage and bridge projects

• $3 million for capital outlay and facilities upgrades to recreation

• $3 million for public utility capital outlay and facility improvements.

Included in the county’s allocation will be capital outlay projects for both the Tift County Development Authority and the Airport Authority. The TCDA will receive $6 million and the Airport Authority will receive $1.7 million.

The City of Tifton will receive 35.26 percent, or approximately $21.4 million.

Those projects include:

• $1.2 million for renovation and improvements to city buildings

• $3.5 million for vehicle, machinery, equipment and technology capital outlay

• $9.45 million for road, street, bridge, drainage and parking projects

• $5 million for water and sewer system capital outlay and improvements

• $750,000 for property acquisition and demolition

The Downtown Development Authority is included in Tifton’s allocation and will receive $1.5 million.

Omega and Ty Ty will each receive 2.97 percent, or approximately $1.8 million.

Omega’s projects include:

• road, street, bridge, drainage and parking projects

• capital outlay for motorized vehicles

• water and sewer system capital outlay and improvements

• renovation and improvements to municipal buildings

Ty Ty’s projects include:

• water and sewer system capital outlay and facility improvements

• recreational capital outlay and facility improvements

• road, street, bridge, drainage and parking projects

Tifton Mayor Julie Smith mentioned finding some way to help the Tifton-Tift County Public Library with SPLOST funds, and Tifton City Councilman Frank Sayles said that he was not happy about slashing the DDA allocation by half a million dollars, but he would “acquiesce in the spirit of compromise.”

The ballot language was also approved by the attendees.

County attorney Tony Rowell explained that, since the approval of the projects list was done so close to the deadline to submit the ballot to the institution that prints them, they would go ahead and send the ballot off to be printed with the understanding that legal approval could not be voted on until 30 days from the Sept. 7 meeting.

The earliest the county could call another meeting to call for a referendum to put SPLOST on the November ballot is 30 days from Sept. 7, which would be early October.