Three Hogansville employees were honored for their hard work and dedication to their jobs Monday night. 

Hogansville’s water department technician DJ Swann was honored with employee of the month. This is the second employee to be honored with that honor after the city introduced the new award in October. 

“His youthfulness has given him an edge with his colleagues; they have taken him under their wing as a young, inexperienced brother, which has paid off,” said Water Superintendent Joe Vidal. “He has been well-trained in water distribution and natural gas, handles disconnect and reconnects, tackles work orders with enthusiasm and any other assignment asked of him. D.J. handles water distribution related service calls on his own on weekends. When there is an after-hours emergency, we can rely on D.J. to be there day or night, even on weekends. I don’t think I have ever heard from him, ‘I can’t do I’ or ‘I am busy.’ He is well-mannered and a polite young man who is never afraid to ask for help or direction. We are proud to have him as a dedicated worker as part of the Hogansville Public Works team. He is worth his weight in gold.”

City Clerk Lisa Kelly received the employee service award for her 15 years of service to the community as a certified municipal city clerk and certified planning commissioner.Waste Water Superintendent Mark Hammond also received an employee recognition award for recently attending a training and subsequently taking the state mandated examination to obtain his water distribution license.

In other action Monday, the council approved a bid from Crawford Grading and Pipeline for $60,903 with a $5,000 contingency allowance for sewer system collection failure at Yellowjacket Creek.

According to City Manager David Milliron, this project is stemmed from the sewer collapsing after heavy rain flooding in January 2016. It had been stabilized, but after further heavy rain, the pipe was washed out again and had to have another emergency repair.  

“The issue is that it is still at risk,” said James Jones with Falcon Designs. “If you come to a large floor or a very large rainfall, it is very possible it will destabilize again. Moving forward the best option is to reroute the pipe to a safer location across the creek.” 

Additional items discussed during the meeting: 

• Milliron said in his report that there are five “hot spots” in Hogansville that members of the community use for illegal dumping of trash. “We’ve added video technology to each of those spots so there should be no more illegal dumping in those areas,” Milliron said.

• Mayor Bill Stankiewicz announced that the 2019 Hummingbird Festival brought in an excess of $87,000, which is a new high. He said that the previous high was $66,000.
• The City of Hogansville is asked to line Georgia Highway 54 (East Main Street) and Johnson Street as the escort enters Hogansville from Interstate 85 with the remains of Sgt. Billy Joe Maxwell, a soldier killed in action during the Korean war. In late 1950, Maxell was a member of Heavy Mortar Company, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. His unit was engaged in intense fighting with the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces at near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea. He was reported missing in action Nov. 30, 1950. Following the war, his remains could not be recovered until 2018 when North Korea returned his remains, along with others to President Donald Trump.