Baldwin County Leaders Focus on State of County

MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Baldwin County leaders gathered around the breakfast table Wednesday morning to update the community on important issues concerning residents and businesses.

Baldwin County leaders and residents filled up their stomachs and minds during this month’s “Eggs and Issues” meeting. The focus was the state of Baldwin County.

“Baldwin county has had some really tough times over the last four years economically just like most other counties, but we’re surviving and we’re doing okay,” Baldwin County Chairman Sammy Hall said.

Despite difficult times, Hall doesn’t want the community to worry. He says the county is in better shape than the nation. It has a balanced budget and no deficit. Hall says the county cut $4 million from its budget over the last four years by taking steps to reduce expenses.

“We have frozen positions, we’ve actually laid some people off, we have just reduced our overall expenditures by each department,” Hall said.

Another big topic was what Baldwin County’s responsibilities are to the community. Georgia law requires the county to provide services like courts, public and mental health, the sheriff, and a prison, but state budget cuts are forcing counties to fund these services themselves.

“Counties are not assigned profitable tasks. We’re given mandates to purely help the citizens of our county and they’re not profitable tasks,” Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee said.

And money is the big concern for residents.

“I think there have been a lot of issues, most of them were addressed today,” resident Tom Glover said. “Budget is a huge concern in the community and it was good to hear from Sammy Hall.”

As he and county leaders reassured the community that Baldwin County is doing just fine.

One way county leaders are looking to reduce spending is to sell the closed landfill. Right now, taxpayers pay $100,000 a year to maintain it. Hall says there are also talks about consolidating the county and city governments.