Joint Development Authority Asks for Annual Funding

The Joint Development Authority is asking its member counties to help fund the group on an annual basis.

Franklin County Industrial Building Authority Director Lyn Brumby Allen came before the Franklin county Board of Commissioners this week to ask the county add the donation to their budget going forward.

Allen said in the past, the member counties, Stephens, Franklin, and Hart, had kicked in funding every few years.

“As part of the establishment of the Authority, each county committed money to the funding of the operations of the Joint Development Authority,” Allen explained. “Periodically after that, as funds would get low, the Authority would come to the county to request more funding, usually about $5,000 at a time.”

But Allen said it was difficult to keep track of the funding because the counties had different fiscal years.

That’s why, Allen said, the Authority would like that money on a more regular basis.  Allen said the Joint Development Authority is now asking each county to contribute annually by placing their contribution in their annual budget as a line item.

“What they’re asking of each county is $3,500 on an annual basis,” she said. “What it covers is the annual audit and managing the different loans and grants that are funding through our Joint Development Authority.”

Allen said the money will not only go to operations, but also to help fund various projects.

“This Authority has done projects in all of our counties,” Allen said. “Our road that we did and put in for the Ty Cobb Regional Medical Center was a Joint Development Authority request.”

After hearing from Allen, the board took no action, but they plan to discuss it and possibly vote on the request at their September meeting.