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ZEBULON - The Pike County Board of Commissioners met in the upper courtroom of the courthouse on Wednesday, February 11, 2026 - 9:00 a.m. for a regularly scheduled meeting. There was a Town Hall Meeting at 8:45 a.m.

The Pike County Board of Commissioners has its own YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@pikecoga where citizens can watch the meetings both in real time and after the meeting to catch up on county business. Thank you to the Commissioners for providing this service to Pike County citizens.

Readers can go to www.PikeCoGa.com, click on Resources, scroll down to Other Links to click on Meetings & Agendas, and then scroll down to the meeting date and click on Online Agenda to review documentation related to this meeting. Morning meetings have links to financial information and reports from county departments and authorities.

This meeting was attended by Commissioners James Jenkins, Ken Pullin, Tim Guy, and Tim Daniel, Chairman Briar Johnson, County Clerk Angela Blount, and Attorney/County Manager Rob Morton.

1. CALL TO ORDER ..... Chairman J. Briar Johnson

2. INVOCATION ..... Silent Invocation

3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ..... Chairman J. Briar Johnson

4. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA - (O.C.G A. § 50-14-1 (e) (1))

5. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES - (O.C.G.A. § 50-14-1(e) (2))

a. Minutes of the January 27, 2026, Workshop.

b. Minutes of the January 27, 2026, Regular Monthly Meeting.

c. Minutes of the January 27, 2026, Executive Session.

Motion to approve all of the minutes. Approved 5-0.

6. INVITED GUEST

a. Employee Recognition for service to Pike County.

• Kenneth “Ken” Lalumiere – Pike County Building & Grounds

Thank you to Ken for his 5 years of service to the county!

• Terrell Moody – Coroner

Thank you to Terrell Moody for his 25 years with the county!

7. REPORTS FROM COMMISSIONS, DEPARTMENTS, COMMITTEES, AUTHORITIES

a. Monthly Reports submitted from County Departments and County Authorities, including a Revenue/ Expenditure Statement for all departments and a summary check register.

Motion to approve. Approved 5-0.

b. County Manager Report
Update on County finances for the following funds/accounts:
General Fund ..... $3,427,194.74
Fire Dept. Donations ...... $10,708.62
Cash Reserve Account ..... $227,672.96
Jail Fund ..... $25,858.94
E-911 Fund ..... $55,135.11
DATE Fund ..... $17,804.50
Juvenile Court Fund ..... $14,950.77
Residential Impact Fees ..... $147,786.12
Commercial Impact Fees ..... $14,194.26
C.A.I.P FUND ..... $29,396.23
General Obligation SPLOST 2022-2028 ..... $1,967,622.94
L.M.I.G. Grant (DOT) ..... $619,675.74

c. County Manager Comment

Has received a 3rd notice of annexation from the City of Zebulon for 5.807 acres on Williamson-Zebulon Road north of Staxi. Land owned by Jeff Milner and others. Provided notice to the commissioners.

Pike Parks & Rec Authority meeting will be on Wednesday, February 11 at 4 p.m. regarding the grant. Click here to read "BREAKING NEWS: PCPRA Awarded $3.4 Million in State and Federal Funds for Improvements."

Directly from the CM Report: "SPLOST Distributions: We will be making distributions to the cities based on the SPLOST collections to date. As you know, the Board of Commissioner previously approved the SPLOST distributions that included the upfront financing and subsequent distributions. Since the initial distributions were made to the County and some of the Cities in connection with the upfront financings, we have received SPLOT collections that have exceeded the debt service to date. We have received requests for distributions from the Cities of Molena and Zebulon, and after reviewing the issues with Clint, we determined that we can proceed with distributions pursuant to the approved intergovernmental agreements and the SPLOST referendum. For the remainder of the current SPLOST (2028), we will pay the biannual debt service obligation first and then any net funds will be distributed pursuant to the percentage allocation set forth in the approved agreements."

d. Commissioner Reports

Tim Guy. Thank you to Public Works on roads.

Chairman Johnson. A citizen addressed the Board after the last meeting. Hobbs gave a clarification to the commissioners. Click here to read the Chief Appraiser's February Report to the Commissioners as well as his letter of clarification in response to David Allen speaking at the past BOC meeting.

Thank you to Angela Blount for being elected as director of a 10 county regional board. Click here to read "County Clerk Serving as District 4 Director of Regional Board."

Feb 24 at 5 p.m. is Coffee with the Chairman at 1828 Coffee. Informal and will end at 6 p.m. so he can come over to the county commission meeting.

e. County Attorney Report to Commissioners

None.

8. UNFINISHED BUSINESS

a. City of Zebulon Annexations (2)

The county received notice in January on 2 separate annexations. Possible Zaxby’s on the south side of town (2.29 acres across from the schools and beside Zebulon Dental Office -- formerly Christ Chapel property) and just past the Senior Center on the north as well. Deadline for objections in February 22.

Discussion of the objection process. Pullin asked questions about how the process worked. Morton. Met with Walter and Trammell including Impact Fees and Service Delivery Strategy as well as E911, etc. The City of Zebulon is willing to discuss this. We don’t have county Impact Fees with the City of Zebulon, but they are will to talk about this. Their Impact Fees center around water and sewer capital recovery. When they annexed the VA, we knew what was coming. Commissioners don’t fully understand what is going there. They are going to provide water and sewer there and annexing the property since they are providing water and sewer. Wanting to annex for retail office spaces. The county has already given an ok on STS Property. This is because it is understood that these companies need water and sewer.

[Note from the Editor: Some of the commissioners have shown great concern at the number of housing units that are going into Zebulon, but that Zebulon doesn't pay any impact fees to help with future growth that will be needed for costs of E-911, fire protection, etc. that are part of the county's impact fees. It doesn't sound like the county could keep the city from annexing these properties, but a majority of the commissioners want the county to sit down with the city to discuss a service delivery strategy and impact fees that help the county as it provides services to city residents of Zebulon.]

Motion to approve the two annexations for the City of Zebulon. 2-3. Guy and Daniel voted to approve the annexation while Jenkins, Pullin, and Johnson voted against the motion. Motion failed.

No other motion was made.

b. Discussion of Homestead Exemptions for Seniors and Disabled Citizens.

Morton made a resolution for seniors and disabled citizens based on the workshop. Spoke with Rep. Beth Camp. Pullin. Let’s go ahead and send a draft to them so we can look at the wording behind the bill on their draft and make a decision at a later date. Motion to send the draft to Rep. Camp for a draft by the legislature. Approved 5-0.

Click here to read, "Board of Commissioners Discusses Roads and Homestead Exemptions."

Click here to read the resolution: BOCresolution2.11.26.pdf.

9. NEW BUSINESS

a. Review and discussion of the updated paving project list.

Also a follow up from the workshop. This is the revised list. Pullin. A couple of residents from Pine Valley asked about paving. Has it been considered? Morton. No. It’s based on maintenance on the road. Johnson. Back in the day, they did not want it paved. Goodman. We don’t have a lot of upkeep on the road. Not a lot of complaints. Jenkins. Perkins Road? Goodman. Haven’t heard about it other than a few issues that need to be addressed.

Daniel. Said that he has gotten numerous calls about the new paving list with people asking, Is this really going to happen? When? People say that our road has been on the road for 30 years when there wasn’t a written list. What is the reality of this as well as the timeline? Morton. Don’t have specific answers other than what we have already funded. We have detailed our funding sources on this.

Legislators are considering property tax legislation that would force counties to use SPLOST to help pay for lost revenue source with property taxes if they vote for the Home Act – so that will affect the county.

Daniel. 4 up top are listed as funded and ready to go. Turner Road. To be determined. Use current SPLOST funds for this once we collect the funds? Morton. Depending on what happens with the first 3 roads – including right of way acquisition – and what is left will go to the other roads. Woodcreek should be out for bid in the spring. Morton. This will be subject to modification, but there is a written list of roads. Johnson. The parking lot is a safety issue and has been moved up. We can work on this as soon as it’s warm enough because we’re paying for it from the General Fund. Guy. We can make modifications if needed? Morton. Yes. Motion and 2nd to approve the list as written. Discussion. Johnson. Any future boards can change this list. Approved 5-0.

Click here to read, "Board of Commissioners Discusses Roads and Homestead Exemptions" which includes a link to the current proposed paving list.

b. Discussion of “rounding up pennies.”

Donna Chapman, Tax Commissioner, has provided information based on rounding up. Morton. Do you want to study the issue and look at possibly rounding up or down? Motion to study this. Approved 5-0.

c. Discussion of the Proposed Statewide Property Tax Reform – HOME Act.

The lost property taxes are a big part of the discussion. This ties back to HB 581. We will lose about $3 million if this goes through. It will affect Impact Fees and capital projects. $9.2 in property taxes. About 60% is homestead. We will be out $2,700,000. Cumulative years for living here and not tied to a particular property.

[Note from the Editor: The state passed the TAVT (one time motor vehicle tax) that phased out the annual birthday tax on vehicles years ago, and that affected our county budget too. Not to the extent of millions of dollars, but it hurt us as a rural county. Pike County does not have big box businesses - or resources like water and sewer - for places like Walmart, etc. to help prop up our tax base. And unintended consequences often occur when Georgia legislators say that they are going to help us down here in Pike County because we are different than metro Atlanta counties.]

10. PUBLIC COMMENT

None

11. EXECUTIVE SESSION

None.

12. ADJOURNMENT

Motion to adjourn. 9:47 a.m.

[Note from the Editor: If you appreciate being able to read information from county meetings for free on Pike County Times, please make a donation to Pike County Times through the PayPal link at the bottom of the page or by check to Pike County Times at PO Box 843, Zebulon so I can justify the amount of time that I am spending away from family. It may not seem like much but sitting in a meeting and then typing it up takes a lot more time than you might imagine! Thanks for reading Pike County's only FREE newspaper.]