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ZEBULON - The Pike County Board of Commissioners held a workshop on Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. in the Courthouse. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss updates to roads as well as the updated paving project list and to discuss homestead exemptions for seniors and disabled citizens.

Roads

A big screen was beside the commissioners during this round table discussion so they could see the projects that have been completed from the last paving list. Culvert replacements, refiguring of roads, and even raising a road to place culverts so it isn’t closed every time the county gets a hard rain were shown on the screen as well as paving and repaving various roads around the county.

Public Works Director Chris Goodman advised the county is looking at handling the roads that get the most complaints first. There is an emphasis on spending county funds well because there is cost for rock and repeatedly fixing the same roads.

Blanton Mill, Woodcreek, and Old Zebulon Roads are at the top of the new proposed paving list. County Engineering Consultant Mark Whitley was involved in discussion including a discussion about Woodcreek Road and whether the county wants to relocate utilities to go with a 60 foot right of way or go with Southern Rivers request to do a 50 foot right of way. A consensus was made to go with 50 feet with the official vote taking place in the 6:30 p.m. meeting that followed this.

The gravel parking lot at the Board of Commissioners’ office is in bad shape and will be moved up on the list from the bottom to somewhere closer to the top as funds allow.

This funding for the parking lot will have to come from the County General Fund; whereas, the funding for roads in general will come from a mix of SPLOST (Special Interest Local Option Sales Tax – a penny sales tax here in Pike), 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).

Homestead Exemptions

The discussion of homestead exemptions for seniors and disabled adults is the fulfillment of a promise that commissioners made to help those on a fixed income in the county when they voted no on HB 581 that would have frozen homestead exemptions in the county.

County Attorney/Manager Rob Morton recommended an additional homestead exemptions for seniors who are 65 years of age and older. This would move the existing exemption of $10,000 to $15,000 initially with a possible phase in of additional exemptions over a period of years not to exceed $50,000.

Seniors would have to be 62 on January 1 of the year in which they apply for an exemption. These exemptions are only for the county portion of taxes here in Pike County because the Board of Education sets their own exemptions when it comes to property taxes. The Pike County Board of Commissioners and the Pike County Board of Education are two completely separate entities.

Discussion included whether or not to include a residency requirement for part of the exemption so seniors who have lived here many years would have an extra consideration from the county. Since this was only a discussion, there will be more discussion at a later time. The thought expressed in the meeting was trying to help people 65 and older who have chosen to stay in Pike County.

Morton recommended an additional homestead exemption for disabled citizens in Pike County. This would move the existing exemption of $12,000 to at least $15,000 initially with a possible phase in of exemptions over a period of years not to exceed $30,000.

Closing

In December, a notification was sent to the State to advise that Pike County is going to file local legislation concerning homestead exemptions during the ongoing legislative session. If legislation is completed here in Pike and approved by the Georgia State Legislature, citizens in Pike County will have an opportunity to vote on it in November.

The commissioners will discuss this more in an upcoming county commission meeting.

Click here to read specifics from the Pike County Times meeting write up. This meeting has a link to the proposed roads list.

Click here to watch the meeting on the ike County Times YouTube page.