TIFTON — The Tift County Board of Commissioners welcomed back commissioner Donnie Hester at the Feb. 6 workshop meeting.

Hester suffered a heart attack recently and had four bypasses, causing him to miss the January meetings.

“I’d like to thank you all for your prayers during my time,” said Hester, addressing commissioners, county staff and residents at the Tuesday night meeting. “I’m glad to be back. I thank you for the prayers, because this thing came up on me and got me.”

At times fighting back tears, Hester thanked God, his family and his extended county family.

Hester also announced his intention to run for reelection this year.

“You don’t know how much you all mean to me,” said Hester. “I’m back. I feel better. I’m here to do what we need to do as a body because you all are my family, too.”

“The Lord saw we need you and you’re still here,” said chairman Grady Thompson.

“I’m glad to see my fellow commissioner back,” said commissioner Melissa Hughes.

“It takes a village to raise a young’n. It takes all of us to run the county. I’m happy to have Donnie back,” said commissioner Robert Setters.

Tift County Sheriff Gene Scarbrough outlined a “three-pronged approach to hiring for the Sheriff’s Office” to the board.

The first point was raising the pay for officers, which the commission approved at the end of 2017.

The next two steps are performing a compensation survey and looking at retirement benefits.

“We couldn’t do it without all of us working together,” said Scarbrough. “We think we’re on the right track to getting to where we can hire good people and keep them.”

The board discussed adjusting retirement to allow full retirement at 30 years of service, regardless of age.

The 2017 Community Block Development Grant were also brought up during the meeting.

The $500,000 grant covers the majority of the CBDG project, with the rest coming from SPLOST V.

Reames & Son Construction submitted the lowest bid, $662,520.

County attorney Tony Rowell updated the board of ongoing discussions with Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS).

In the past, the county and DFCS had an agreement that the county would pay for expenses for the DFCS office on 2nd Street and then be reimbursed.

Now, state offices are moving more towards a traditional renter/landlord agreement.

Complicating that is money owed to the county from the state office from the last two fiscal years, according to county manager Jim Carter at the January meeting.

“We’ve continued to try to negotiate and get an understanding about the lease and an understanding about outstanding payments,” said county attorney Tony Rowell. “On our side, we’ve done about all we know to do.

“Here’s where we are. They owe us money. I’ve looked at all the historical data and there’s no doubt in my mind they’re…$172,000 out.

“They suggested we get an independent auditor to come on and figure out how much they owe us.”

Rowell outlined two options for the board. Either ask DFCS to find another location or give them a timeline to repay the $172,000.

After repayment, the county could look at negotiating a new lease with them, Rowell said.

“We need that building otherwise,” said Thompson. “And if they’re not going to work with us, they need to go otherwise.”

The board discussed an amendment to the development code concerning interior driveways and roads as well as parking areas.

“We’re the only ones who have technical standards for private parking,” said county manager Jim Carter.

The board also discussed:

• Renewing a contract for misdemeanor probation services with Professional Court Services.

• A lease agreement with Behavioral Health Services of South Georgia for 334 Tifton Eldorado Road.

• A lease agreement with Ashley’s Business Solutions for copiers for the tax assessor’s office and superior court.

• An appointment to the Tifton-Tift County Library Board.

The TCBOC will next meet at 6 p.m., Monday Feb. 12 at 225 Tift Avenue.

It is open to the public.