Whitfield County commissioners expected to vote on engineering contract for Prater's Mill
Oct. 8—The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners is slated to vote Monday on an engineering and architectural services contract for repairs to historic Prater's Mill.
The commissioners will meet at 6 p.m. in the meeting room of the county courthouse. The meeting will be livestreamed on the county's Facebook and YouTube pages.
The commissioners will vote on a $159,000 contract with Gresham Smith, a planning and design firm with offices across the nation.
This is the initial step in efforts to shore up the foundation of the mill, located near Varnell. The foundation of the mill is washing away because of flooding by the adjacent Coahulla Creek. The mill was built by Benjamin Prater in 1855.
The commissioners are also scheduled to vote on whether to:
—Amend the 2023 budget utilities line for county offices in the Wells Fargo bank building by $210,507 due to the true-up on actual utilities expense from 2022. This is a requirement of the lease agreement. and to amend the Wells Fargo lease expense line by $20,320 due to the increased lease payment of $5,080 per month since July.
—Approve a $151,575 contract with North Cherokee Electric of Canton to design and install a traffic signal at the intersection of Beaverdale Road and Boyles Mill Road/Goodhope Road. According to the board meeting agenda packet, the signal is needed because "of continued accidents due to increased driver speeds and driver errors with regards to stop signs and a caution light."
—Approve the $138,470 purchase of new storage arrays for the administration data center and the 911 center from Wrightcore under a state purchase contract. The existing arrays are near the end of their life and the maker will not support them after the middle of 2024. They contain all the servers and data for the county.
—Apply for a $100,000 COVID-19 Mitigation in Georgia Confinement Facilities Grant. This is a grant program administered by Georgia Southern University, the Georgia Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reimburse the county for COVID-19 expenses at the jail.
—Accept a $93,775 federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant to purchase a mass spectrometer for the sheriff's office. The device can be used to detect drugs.
—Approve the $65,109 purchase of new Cisco Voice UCS servers from Disys under a state purchase contract.
—Approve a $32,181 purchase of high-density file storage for the victim witness part of the District Attorney's Office from Ernie Morris of Bushnell, Florida.
—Approve a $30,991 change order to the contract to replace the roof at the jail. When contractors removed the existing roof membrane flashings from the walls they found they had been glued to gypsum sheathing board. Removing the membrane peeled the facer off the gypsum board. The gypsum board is no longer an acceptable surface to attach the new membrane, and plywood will have to be installed.
—Approve a $12,950 contract with Global Perceptive Solutions of Alpharetta for penetration testing of the county's information technology system. The testing will include both inside and outside networks, firewalls, servers, Wi-Fi and some workstations.
—Approve an agreement with David Holcomb to mow the Tunnel Hill Battlefield site, which is owned by the county. Holcomb will not charge the county but will be allowed to keep the hay from the 85-acre site. Holcomb's father Kenneth donated the site to the county, and as part of that donation David Holcomb was allowed to cut the hay for personal use.
—Approve a resolution urging Gov. Brian Kemp and the General Assembly "to continue efforts in the 2024 session of the Georgia General Assembly to enhance Georgia citizens' access to vital mental health services, including the provision of state budgetary funding for additional behavioral health crisis centers across the state, additional co-responder units and other resources to assist those with mental health and substance abuse disorders."
