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During the Troup County Commissioners work session on Tuesday, County Manager Eric Mosley gave a quick update on proposals for the upcoming special-purpose local-option sales tax (SPLOST) vote.

Mosley advised that he and Commission Chairman Patrick Crews have spoken with the mayors and city managers of all three cities to discuss potential projects for SPLOST VI.

Based on previous SPLOST receipts, the county is projecting revenues of $80 million, about $10 million more than the previous SPLOST.

“I believe that to be a fairly conservative number,” Mosley said. “Based on the $80 million and the 45-45-5-5 (percentage LOST) split, Troup County will generate approximately $34.2 million over the course of a six year SPLOST.”

Under the split, the City of LaGrange will also generate about $34.2 million. West Point and Hogansville would get about $3.8 million each.

One of the proposals would take $4 million off the top of the $80 million to pay for repaving Kia Boulevard due to its countywide significance.

The repaving of Kia Boulevard and Sorento Way was a major part of recent service delivery strategy (SDS) discussions due to the economic impact of the Kia Georgia plant on Troup County. Both roads were paid for by the Georgia Department of Transportation during the construction of the plant, but the roads now need to be repaved.

The proposal would use $4 million to repave Kia Boulevard, Kia Parkway and Sorento Way, as well as some renovations to the bridge that crosses Long Cane Creek.

Mosley said another project that has been discussed by Sheriff James Woodruff, LaGrange Police Chief Lou Dekmar and the other chiefs was the idea of a county-wide camera system.

The proposed system would be used to capture license plates and vehicle descriptions for criminal activity.

“Based on the requests that I’ve received, we’ve allocated $13.8 million to transportation infrastructure, not only for road resurfacing, but also to the county airport, equipment upgrades and bridge replacements,” Mosley said.

The remainder of the proposals include projects for public safety, quality of life and government administrative facilities.

Mosley said he has scheduled a joint meeting with all three city councils and the board of commissioners on Oct. 5 at Great Wolf Lodge to discuss the projects and finalize the SPLOST VI referendum for March 2023.

• In other business, the commissioners voted to approve a new lieutenant position for the Troup County Jail. Woodruff said the jail previously had two lieutenants. The second position was previously eliminated to save money when jail populations were low, but now they are over capacity at 617 inmates. Regular capacity for the jail is 600.
• The board also gave the recreation department permission to accept a reimbursable grant for $9,000 from Three Rivers for homebound seniors. The county plans to use the funds to purchase paper goods to use while distributing food.
• The commissioners also approved a home occupation business license for Justin Woitena at 63 James Drive for a junk removal business. As a condition for the license, the business owner cannot bring junk picked up as part of the business to his home, nor can he use the county’s convenience center to dispose of the items. Woitena has secured a storage unit to store items that must be kept overnight and plans to only use his home as an office for the business.