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Tuesday, January 27, 2026 – 4:00 p.m.
Courthouse, Main Courtroom, 16001 Barnesville Street, Zebulon, Georgia
ZEBULON - The Board of Commissioners held a Workshop on Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. in the upstairs courtroom of the courthouse located at 16001 Barnesville Street, Zebulon, Georgia. The public was invited to attend.
Commissioners James Jenkins, Ken Pullin, Tim Guy, Tim Daniel, and Chairman Briar Johnson were present along with County Attorney/Manager Rob Morton, County Clerk Angela Blount, Public Works Director Chris Goodman, and County Engineering Consultant Mark Whitley.
[Note from the Editor: This was on a FB Live on my phone since the commissioners decided not to stream this workshop on their YouTube channel. This was a more relaxed atmosphere with everyone sitting around one table facing each other with a big screen beside them so they could see what was going on with photos, videos, documents, etc. I thought this was a missed opportunity to show the community what progress has been made on roads (because there has been a LOT of progress), the proposed future plan for roads, and that the Pike County Board of Commissioners is following through on its promise to bring a tax break to senior citizens in the county after saying no to HB 581. Readers may see this differently. Here is link to watch this on my YouTube Channel: INSERT TITLE HERE.]
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))
Motion to approve the agenda. Approved 5-0.
5. NEW BUSINESS
a. Review and discussion of the updated paving project list
There were pictures and videos of so many projects that has been completed with funding from SPLOST, GTIB (The Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank - a grant and low-interest loan program) and LMIG (The Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant that provides funding for local road projects based on road miles and population through the Georgia Department of Transportation). The General Fund was not used to fund these projects.
Here are many of the projects that were presented on the screen: Daniel Road, Watering Hole Drive and Watering Hole Pass, Harden Road /Glover Road Reconfiguration, McCard Lake Road, Scott and Ward Road to Blanton Mill, Scott Road Extension and Cul-de-sac so the buses can turn around there now, Woodard and Starks Roads - paved and replaced culverts, Caldwell Bridge and McKinley Roads, Hunter Road Culvert Replacement - the road was raised and culvert placed, Melville Brown and Tanyard Roads, Reams Road Culvert Replacement, and West Fossett Road and West Road Culvert Replacement.
Public Works Director Chris Goodman advised that the county is looking at handling the roads with the most complaints first. Click here to view the proposed paving list. [Note from the Editor: This list is not set in stone. There will be some changes in where items are on the list, etc. Everything will happen in a meeting so the public can see it. The biggest part of this is trying to be responsible with county funding. Rock costs money. So does the work done on our dirt roads.]
Blanton Mill Road. Discussion on how much to pave. Discussion of funding. SPLOST and Impact Fees help with the roads along with GTIB and LMIG funding.
Woodcreek has a possible issue with utilities. Can do this with 50 feet and easements with Southern Rivers.
Old Zebulon Road. In the design stages. Utilities will be looked at on that one.
Blanton Mill Road. Supposed to be Hwy 362 to the end and then only to Ward Road. Morton. We agreed to do that only to Ward Road. But it could be done in phases. Morton to County Engineering Consultant Mark Whitley. Can you give us an opinion on this? Yes. It could be done in a couple of weeks. Goodman. I don’t know why y’all would want to go from dirt to paved to dirt. Guy. Can we borrow the money to do this? Morton. It could be done, but we need to look at debt service. More discussion. Concerned about money being spent on rock.
Morton. No final decision on Blanton Mill Road yet. Need to make a decision on Woodcreek today since they are working on it now. 50 or 60 foot right of way? Southern Rivers is requesting 50 feet so they don’t need to relocate utilities. Consensus to go with 50 feet. This will be asked at the meeting tonight to get an official vote.
SPLOST should be on the ballot in 2027. Sounds like the possibility of using this to help with roads in the future.
This priority list includes paving the county commission lot all of the way up to the Sheriff’s Office and the other county office including Elections, Tax Assessor, Tax Commissioner, and Planning and Zoning Office.
Morton. Maybe have this on the morning meeting in February for vote. This is the working paving project list. Question about moving up the paving of the county parking lot. Waiting on the final numbers on what is available with our current budget. Trying to make it to the end of the fiscal year. Consensus to move this up if possible.
b. Discussion of homestead exemptions for seniors and disabled citizens
Recommending modification to at least initially increase by $5,000 to begin with possible increases over a 5 year span. Some seniors may not be on fixed income. We could look at monetary thresh holds if needed. Filed a notice of intent for local legislation in December in case we want to make a change during this session. Has spoken with Rep. Beth Camp on this. This would be put on a ballot for the voters to decide.
(These portions are from MEMORANDUM RE: PIKE COUNTY TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR 2026 LOCAL LEGISLATION written 12.4.25. The Commissioners opted out of HB 581 but promised that they would consider local legislation to address exemptions that would be beneficial to residents of our county.)
"...Considering all of the information that has been reviewed, we are making the following recommendations to be considered for local legislation during the 2026 session of the General Assembly:
A. First, we are recommending an additional homestead exemption for seniors, 65 and older. Specifically, we are recommending that you consider increasing the existing $10,000 exemption for seniors 65 and older to at least $15,000.00 initially. Based on the research mentioned above, you may want to consider increasing the exemption up to $50,000.00 to be phased-in over a specific period of time (such as in $5,000.00 increments to be phased-in, which would require 8 phase-in periods, whether the periods be 1-year, 2, year, 3-year, or 5-years).
B. Second, we are recommending an additional homestead exemption for totally disabled citizens. Specifically, we are requesting that you consider increasing the existing $12,000.00 exemption for citizens who are totally disabled and whose annual income does not exceed $12,000.00 to at least $15,000.00 initially. Based on the research mentioned above, you may want to consider increasing the exemption up to $30,000.00 to be phased-in over a specific period of time, similar to the recommendation in subparagraph A above. I do have some concern related to the second requirement for this exemption having the limitation of not to exceed $12,000.00 in annual income. The federal poverty guidelines consider a single person to be indigent at an annual income of not to exceed $15,650, and the threshold amount is increased for the number of family members in the household. For example, for a couple, the threshold is $21,150.00 in annual income, and for a family of 4, the threshold is $32,150.00 in annual income. In connection with this exemption for totally disabled citizens, you may want to consider modifying the existing $12,000.00 limiting threshold to qualify for the exemption...
It is being recommended that Pike County continue to opt out of House Bills 581/92 and to consider raising the existing homestead exemption for seniors from $10,000.00 to at least $15,000 and then not to exceed $50,000.00 over a phased-in period of time; and, it is further being recommended to increase the existing homestead exemption for citizens totally disabled from $12,000.00 to at least $15,00 and then not to exceed $30,000.00 over a phased-in period of time." (END OF MEMO.)
Pullin. There are a lot of variations on this. Each $5,000 off of a set of taxes is about $44 for the recipient and about $8 per year for everyone else to pick up the $5,000.
The Assessors Office deals with the income-based side of things. The School Board has some too. But the school and county are separate as far as taxes go though.
Recommendation is to move it up $5,000 in 2027 and add another at a later point.
Up to $50,000 for seniors and $30,000 for disabled. Have to be 62 (or whatever age required) as of January 1 of each year.
Pullin mentioned possibly basing some of this on time lived in the county. A residency requirement of say 5 years. Maybe another step up at 10 years. Don’t know if it’s the right path but would like to look at it.
22 exemptions claimed by disabled citizens. More that have requested it and haven’t met the income requirement. Can modify the income thresh hold and maybe do step ups over a period of time.
Maybe leave it age based and step it up a little more. Do you want to have a residency requirement? Trying to help people over 65 and step it up at 70 and 75 and higher. Morton asked for thoughts on this so can write this up because it will affect the millage rate.
Planning and Zoning Director Jeremy Gilbert said to make sure that this is tied to residency in the county and not to a particular parcel.
[Note from the Editor: I applaud the commissioners for giving their word to look into exemptions when they voted no on HB 581 and for actually following through. This discussion will be continued. March 6 is crossover day in the Georgia Legislature where this will have to be passed by either the Senate or the House so it can go to the other side of the house to be voted on April 2. From there it will be go to the Governor for his signature.]
6. ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn. 5:38 p.m.