BOE could face charges up to $100,000 for an unpaid bill dating back to 2009

The Stephens County Board of Education is in the midst of mitigating an unpaid bill that could potentially cost the board up to $100,000.

During the recent BOE meeting, Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey delivered the bad news.

“In 2009, the superintendent signed a mitigation credit for basically a Marshland Protection Permit and a Water Quality Certification,” Dorsey said. “At that time, the cost of that would have been around $49,000. Upon being contacted by the Corps of Engineers, a few weeks ago, they asked me if I knew anything about it, which I responded ‘no I didn’t know anything about it; but, I’d like to see whatever signed contract that they had, for us to review,’ they send it to us, and it turns out that the original, like I said, was somewhere in the $49,000 range. Unfortunately, that’s if it was paid back in 2009.”

Back in 2009, the county embarked on a journey to erect a new high school; however, in order for construction to be completed, former Superintendent Sherrie Whiten and the BOE members, at that time, were required to submit an application in order to receive a water quality certification and State of Georgia Marshland Protection Permit.

According to Dorsey the original fee incurred from the water survey, required for both the certification and permit, was $49,000; which, was never paid under Whiten’s leadership, and eventually was forgotten all-together.

“It appears in our initial conversations that this will now be in the $70,000 mark that we’ll be asked to pay,” Dorsey said. “The guy is on vacation, so we won’t have an official number until next year. We’ve contacted Buckley and Associates, Dr. Strickland (Joel Strickland, assistant superintendent) was kind enough to do that for us, they searched and they did not make any payments on behalf of the system to this. We’ve had Mrs. Fitzpatrick (Alicia Fitzpatrick is the Financial Director for the system) research on the system side to see if any payment had been made. And the short story is, they would like their money. What I’m asking the board to consider tonight, is to authorize up to $100,000 to cover the Marshland Protection Permit and Water Quality Certification for 2009 agreement for the construction of the high school.”

Dorsey continued to explain that because of additional fees being cumulated, almost daily, it was necessary the board make a decision during this meeting.

“It’s just one of those bills that never got paid back then. I keep thinking all this is over, and then, every once in a while, another surprise comes up,” Dorsey said. “So, it does seem that the system is obligated to this (debt) and the amount will continue to increase until we pay it off. The last thing I won’t to do is to continue to incur penalties. I’ll certainly update you on what the actual cost is; but, that’s why you’ll see the recommendation is going to have the verbiage ‘authorize up to $100,000 to cover the Marshland Protection Permit and the Water Quality Certification for 2009 agreement for construction of the high school.”

A motion was made by Chairman Rod Moore, to authorize Dorsey to use up to $100,000, from the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST) account, to cover the Marshland Protection Permit and Water Quality Certification for 2009 agreement for construction of high school.

Board Member David Fricks seconded the motion; which then carried after a 5-0 vote, with Board members Bill Wheeler and Mark Smith being absent.