July 21, 2022 Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

I attended the July 21, 2022 Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m. I know this one is pretty late, but the last few weeks have been pretty hectic with the recent elections.

Commissioners Gohagan and Williams were present. I assumed Presiding Commissioner Hasty was preparing for his candidate forum.

There were approximately ten people in the audience besides the Camden County employees who normally attend. Nobody had anything to say during Public Comment.

The agenda started off with three Planning and Zoning items:

PZ 22-0069 was the Christy Rezone in Linn Creek from R-1 to B-2. The representative for the property wanted it re-zoned so they could move their rental store there. There was no opposition and it was approved unanimously.

PZ 22-0079 was Westwood Rental Property in Linn Creek from R-1 to B-2. The representative for the property said it was sold as commercial property and there has been a commercial building on the property since 1996. (These zoning discrepancies often pop up when the new owner comes in to the courthouse to make some changes to the property and Planning and Zoning discovers that the historical use of the property does not conform with its original zoning.) There was no opposition and it was approved unanimously.

PZ 22-0089 38MM Marina RV Resort in Sunrise Beach Rezone R-1 to B-2. The property is a mix of R-1 and B-2. The representative for the property wanted to make it all B-2. There was no opposition and it was approved unanimously.

The fourth agenda item was a Board of Adjustment re-appointment. Dave Schlenfort is a Chairperson of the board and he is up for re-appointment. His re-appointment was approved unanimously.

The fifth agenda item was the June 2022 tax abatements. The abatements were approved unanimously.

The sixth agenda item was Authorization to Execute Leases and New Data Lines for Temporary Locations. This item dealt with the temporary locations that will house Camden County departments during the courthouse renovations. The Commission approved three leases, transferal of utilities, and the installation of data lines for the new offices.

Lydia Porter, who was running for Presiding Commissioner, asked to speak. She was critical of the apparent lack of planning for the office moves. She asked why the Commission had no charts or documents available to explain their plans to temporarily re-locate the various departments? She also wanted to know if Camden County had appointed a property manager for the project? The Commission didn’t have anything available at the meeting to provide to the public regarding the plans for the move.

The seventh agenda item was the County Clerk Bid Award. This bid was for upgrades to the voting machines. Rowland Todd (Camden County Clerk) recommended the Commission accept the Adkins Election Services bid for $142,320. Their bid was the only bid so there weren’t any other options.

The Commission approved the bid unanimously.

The eighth agenda item was the Social Media Policy for the county’s Emergency Management Agency. I’m not sure why EMA needs their own social media policy, but it was approved unanimously.

The ninth agenda item was for the LANEG (Lake Area Narcotics Enforcement Group) agreement renewal. This item was approved unanimously.

The final agenda item was a Budget Amendment for the Juvenile Department. They wanted to transfer money within the department between several line items. This was approved unanimously.

And that was that. Sorry for the delay.