COVINGTON, Ga. — Newton County’s cities plan to pave roads, upgrade municipal buildings, replace aging water and sewer lines and buy new police vehicles with their share of SPLOST funds if voters renew the 1% sales tax in November.
City leaders in the five cities were meeting with county officials to finalize an intergovernmental agreement on how to share proceeds of the 2023 SPLOST by a July 19 deadline for placing it on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The SPLOST would be a renewal of the current 1% sales tax voters approved in 2016 for infrastructure and debt service. If voters agree to renew it, the SPLOST would be in place through 2029.
County attorney Aaron Meyer said the Board of Commissioners must meet a Tuesday, July 19, deadline to choose its projects that will be presented to voters, complete negotiations with six cities over the split of SPLOST proceeds and approve an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the cities.
Covington is planning $20.35 million in projects with its SPLOST 2023 proceeds for:
• Phase one upgrades to Turner Lake Road, U.S. Hwy. 278 to Brown Bridge Road, $9.075 million;
• Phase two upgrades to Turner Lake Road, Brown Bridge Road to Georgia Hwy. 81, $3.445 million;
• Upgrades to City Pond Road, $3,638 million;
• City’s contribution to Highway 278 Community Improvement District, $1.5 million;
• City’s contribution to city-county 911 Center operations, $1.2 million;
• Water and sewer rehabilitation projects, $1.5 million;
Oxford was anticipating $2.2 million if the SPLOST proceeds are divided by population.
Its city council was to see City Manager Bill Andrew’s recommendation for using it for:
• Four police vehicles, $55,000 each for a total of $220,000;
• Road improvements and paving, $495,810, which will support total paving costs estimated at about $550,000 per year for 10 years.
• Haygood Street water line replacement, $1.5 million of the total cost of $2.8 million.
Andrew said officials are seeking other sources for the remaining money for the Haygood Street project.
The city also plans to use $876,082 in 2021 and 2022 ARPA funds for water line replacement on Queen Anne Street, Cindy Court, Coke Street, West Watson Street and Williams Street, Andrew said.
Porterdale City Manager Frank Etheridge said the town wants to use its share of SPLOST to put top coats of asphalt on some residential streets the county had approved in the past.
It also wants to buy replacement police vehicles, expand its police department building, and build an office for its public works department and a larger city hall. The current city hall is a converted fire station, Etheridge said.
Newborn Mayor Gregg Ellwanger said his town on the county’s eastern border wants to repave North Johnson Street and do some renovations to its Historic Schoolhouse and city hall with its share of the proceeds.
Mansfield Mayor G.W. Davis Jr. said his town in east Newton County is “desperately in need of road paving.”
“The cost of paving has escalated to the point that a small town can hardly afford it,” Davis said. “We have several roads that haven’t been resurfaced in about 40 years.”
He said 4th Avenue, on which parents line up for their children at Mansfield Elementary School, is “especially bad.”
“It would be great to get some help from the county, especially on the road that serves the school since that truly benefits the parents in the county,” he said.
Mansfield stands to receive about $425,000 if the SPLOST is divided solely on population.
County commissioners recently agreed to offer the cities 20% of the proceeds rather than 17.27% that the cities would receive if the split was based on the percentages of the total population within each city and the unincorporated county — the minimum that municipalities are entitled under state law. The county government would receive 80% rather than 82.73% under its latest offer.
The county government’s largest expenditures planned for its share include $21 million for road improvements, including a widening of Brown Bridge Road; $12 million for public safety vehicle fleet replacement; $10.277 million for a Westside Community Park project; $10 million for debt service; $9 million for resurfacing roads; and $9.7 million for new and upgraded parks, county government buildings and the county library system.
