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ZEBULON - The Development Authority met on March 5, 2025 at 8 a.m. at the Pike County Chamber of Commerce. Present were: Members present include Briar Johnson - Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Dee McLeRoy, Bryan Oglesby, John Barker, Stewart Esary, Joe Walter - Mayor of Zebulon, and Director Kyle Fletcher.
Call to Order. 8:01 a.m.
Approval of the agenda. Approved.
Approval of the minutes. Approved.
Approval of the Financials.
Walked through the financials. Question on paying for the electricity on the sign at the 41 Business Park. Trying to be fiscally responsible because the park is built out. Move to accept the financials. Approved.
Old Business
Invited Guest: Mark Whitley.
A. Pike Business Park update. Going to do this next month. Table this.
B. 30 acre tract
Feasibility of use. There are 7 proposed lots. This is the simplest way to make the lots with limited infrastructure. A cul-de-sac for 4 of the lots. Investigating the wet areas because there is pond/wet area on the property. Looking at the possibility of a master retention pond to cover more of the lots. Can ask more for the lots if this is put on site. Sewer, water, and gas run along Hwy 19. Discussion on how to obtain funding for utilities on this property. Maybe Spectrum for internet. Revisit this at a later date. Motion to get Whitley to get a price for an environmental study on the property. Approved. [Note from the Editor: This was discussed during the April 2, 2025 meeting which is linked below through the official minutes since I did not attend that meeting.]
New Business
A. Flat Shoals Energy Center Update
SunTribe Solar Project. They are working on a website for the property. Will have a community meeting on May 28 from 5 to 7 p.m. (maybe?) at the Strickland Building. The engineers will be there to answer questions from the community.
The permit fee that commissioners voted on was $2.50 per $1,000. Working on the abatement schedule. Trying to get info out to the community. Still a competitive project with Georgia Power RFP.
Barker. The county agreed to an 80% abatement for the full term back in 2017. The fee should have been low on the front side because the money comes on the backside. They will replace these panels between year 10 and 15 to keep the abatement schedule. Need to front load an abatement schedule. Who is going to do this? The MOU was rewritten by the county years ago. An 80% abatement for 30 years was not the abatement for 10 years that was front loaded that was proposed in 2017. They will restart with new panels so it will never get back to 100% because it goes back to Day 1. We lost a lot of leverage on the abatement schedule because we went from $1 per $1,000 to $2.50 per $1,000. The cash flow from the abatement schedule would have made this up over 10 years if it had remained low because they have to make their money back from paying higher in the beginning. The depreciation schedule is complex. Depreciation and the abatement work together on this. The value of the asset goes down every year. 100% of nothing is nothing, and it doesn’t matter after 10 years because they will retool everything.
B. Review of 2025-2026 DAPC Budget
Director Kyle Fletcher met with Attorney (and County) Manager Rob Morton and Finance Administrator Clint Chastain regarding the Development Authority's budget. She asked for $146,348 but noted that the authority doesn't have any money in the budget for future land purchase.
Barker. Why are we going through this? The IDA receives .25 of a mill so we are not subject to the county budget process. Discussion. What is the projected revenue? We don’t know the projected mill rate. Walter. Based on HB 92 (cleanup of HB 581), the cities and counties have to give a projected rollback rate that could estimate what a .25 mill will be worth.
Oglesby. Do we have to be on the same calendar year as the county? No. Barker. Suggested going with a regular calendar year based on the money coming in from the county. More discussion. How to change to a calendar year? Check the bylaws and discuss this at the next meeting. Net digest gives an idea of the .25 of a mill. Maybe around $100,000. Will have to do 6 months of financials to roll through to December and then start over in January. Some of the tax revenue will come in later in the year, but it shouldn’t be a problem overall. Best guess things for now because the county won’t know the millage rate until September or October. The biggest issue is looking at buying property. The .25 mill gives the IDA stability with a steady operating revenue rather than dealing with ups and downs of the amount given by the County Commission. Briar Johnson. The enacting legislation for the IDA allows this board to do what it wants to do.
C. Election of Chairman for the DAPC (Kel Brannon is stepping down as Chairman)
He wants to remain as a board member but not as the Chairman. Motion to appoint Bryan Oglesby as Chairman and Stewart will be the Vice-Chairman and Treasurer.
Additional Comments
Briar Johnson. Weren’t the 3 acre lots the last to go at the Zebulon Business Park? Yes, but we are working on plans for this property overall. [Note from the Editor: This is in reference to the 30 acre property that was discussed above.]
Johnson. Update on the big property. Talking with the school board about the bus barn and trying to put everything on the side of the creek. That would leave the rest open. [Note from the Editor: This is the 238 acres ($3 million property) property behind the bus barn that was acquired in 2023. Presently, there is $2,192,000 included in the Board of Commissioners part of the budget to pay for this land. (Page 11 of the draft budget that can be found by clicking here.]
Johnson. Need help from the IDA. Can y’all talk to commission members to help our board members understand this process? They need to hear from y’all rather than just people on social media. Maybe do a walk around with individual commissioners as well.
John Barker. They (members of the Board of Commissioners) need leadership. There should have been a discussion on changing from $1 to $2.50 per $1,000 on the solar panels. There were 3 votes to change it including you, Tim Daniel, and Tim Guy. We are the 6th most prosperous county in the state. There should be more here than we have. We have some of the highest impact fees in the state. Less than 10% of the county is commercial. Impact fees and size of property lots is hurting the county. The cost of doing business goes up every year, and those who live here are paying for it. We had our legs cut out from under us (on the solar farm) with the up front money cost.
Motion to adjourn. 9:12 a.m.
Past Meetings that Pike County Times has attended
Approved Minutes from the April 2, 2025 IDA Meeting (Pike County Times did not attend this meeting.)
March 13, 2024 and April 3, 2024 IDA Meeting
August 21, 2023 New Development Authority Director Named
July 26, 2023 Special Called IDA Meeting
June 7, 2023 IDA Meeting and History and Background of the IDA
February 20, 2023 Joint Commission and IDA Special Called Meeting