Several towns agree to county service delivery plan

Published 9:00 am Thursday, October 4, 2018

MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Moultrie City Council on Tuesday night signed onto an agreement with Colquitt County for provision of various services, including E911 dispatch, use of the county jail, and collection of city taxes by the county tax commissioner.

The Service Delivery Strategy has to be re-negotiated every 10 years. Failure to have one jeopardizes state grants, including the Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant for roads and Community Development Block Grants for a variety of other purposes.

The county’s deadline to complete the agreement is Oct. 31, County Administrator Chas Cannon said, and only the towns of Omega and Funston haven’t agreed to it yet.

The goals of the Service Delivery Strategy are to provide a flexible framework for local governments and authorities to agree on service delivery arrangements, to minimize duplication or competition among local governments and authorities providing local services, and to provide a method of resolving disputes among service providers regarding service delivery, funding equity, and land use.

The average citizen should see little difference between operations under the current Service Delivery Strategy and under the new one when it takes effect.

Cannon said he started meeting with all the cities in the county around March in hopes to get some ground covered in coming to a deal.

“We started meeting with the different cities around March and we were able to get some agreements — and, of course, there were some disagreements, but that’s just how things go; however I am confident that we can and will get a deal done by our deadline,” he said.

Moultrie City Manager Pete Dillard said he worked with Norman Park and Doerun to make sure they were able to come to an agreement.

“The city manager of Doerun and the mayor in Norman Park met together and worked together beautifully; we know working together we do a lot better,” said Dillard. “I am also very pleased with our relationship with Norman Park and Doerun. We argue and have disagreements but we always come together when needed.”