At Monday morning’s regular county commission meeting, Clerk of Court Lisa Gillis announced that London O’Steen, a senior at Citizens Christian Academy, was one of four recipients of the Constitutional Officers Association of Georgia Scholarship. The scholarship is a statewide award presented to four deserving high school seniors throughout the state.
“Seniors from all 159 counties vie for this scholarship. It’s not something that we just pick out of a hat. They have to work for it. They have to come interview a constitutional officer and learn about what we do and how the counties are run. They have to write an essay that is then sent to the leadership of the Constitutional Officers Association,” stated Gillis. The essays are reviewed then four are chosen.
O’Steen is the second winner of the scholarship from Coffee County. “I would like to say thank you. I plan to go to the University of Georgia and I’m majoring in regenerative bioscience in the College of Agriculture. I plan to go pre-med,” said O’Steen as she accepted the scholarship.
Following the scholarship presentation, commissioners approved a bid for the county’s certificate of deposit. Five banks submitted bids for the county CD. Colony Bank’s bid was the highest at 5.17 percent. The CD is currently at Douglas National Bank. Commissioners voted to move the CD to Colony at the 5.17 percentage rate.
The commission also approved the following items of business:
- Burl Mills Road pipe replacement: The low bid of $45,146.80 came from Thrift Brothers.
- The purchase of several pieces of equipment for the road department: A rotary mower from Lasseter Equipment for $26,000; a tractor from Atlantic Southern for $79,006.94; a fuel truck from Anderson Ford for $63,433.90 and the fuel truck body from ParkBuilt for $28,274.50, and two Dodge 1500 pickups from Woody Folsom for $96,440.
- An alcohol license for Fairway Liquor, a new liquor store under construction in West Green, at 9675A Highway 221 in West Green.
- An alcohol license at 2850 New Forest Highway (Wright Quick).
- The annexation of 98.48 acres into the city at the airport. The city owns the property as a part of the airport but it sits in the county. The city would like to annex it into the city of Douglas.
- And a new speed hump ordinance should residents request one on county roads. The ordinance is based upon the city’s ordinance but does include some changes in wording to reflect county roadways.
The county also conducted the first reading of two rezoning requests: 1.95 acres at 2607 Willacoochee Highway from R2 Residential to Commercial (request from Steve Foskey) and 1.81 acres at 1677 Quincey Batten Loop from R2 Residential to AG Agriculture (request from Warren Smith in order to place a mobile home on the property).