Treutlen Residents Deny Survey for Largest Grant in County History

Treutlen County Manager Joseph Glenn reported several Treutlen County residents had refused to take a survey necessary to apply for what he described as the largest grant in Treutlen County’s history, with tax concerns as their main reason.

“It’s frustrating to see something that I’ve worked on since I’ve gotten here – it’s the largest grant that’s ever been written for Treutlen County – to see it fall because of this tax stuff would be really, really discouraging,” said Glenn.

Glenn spoke to the Treutlen County Board of Commissioners on the issue during their monthly meeting on Sept. 1. According to Glenn, the $4.8 million grant would be used to build a “resiliency operations center,” a unifying building for the county’s various public services to utilize in the event of emergencies or disasters.

Part of the application process involved a survey checking the income of the local population, with the grant looking for areas with low to moderate income levels. However, the original survey results actually left Treutlen County ineligible for the grant, so the Heart of Georgia staff offered a “hail mary” solution: the Regional Commission would draft a new survey for Treutlen County to perform which officials could then use for the application. 

Approximately 400 addresses in the county were randomly chosen for the new survey, which the board announced publicly on Aug. 26. 

“The survey is not intended to judge any individual or family’s financial circumstances,” wrote the board in the announcement. “Its purpose is to provide the information required to determine our County’s eligibility for grant funding.”

Yet, Treutlen County EMA officials reported feedback from residents who refused to take the survey. EMA Deputy Director Eddie Vongsouvanh, who helped to administer the survey, reported “four to five” denials per day.

According to Glenn, the main reason cited by these residents for refusing the survey was taxes, believing the construction of a resiliency center would raise taxes in the county. He refuted this reasoning during the meeting, saying the center’s construction would have no effect on the local taxes levied towards residents. 

“This [has] absolutely nothing to do with the taxes,” said Glenn. “They’re not eating these.”

EMA Director Justin McNure offered the possibility of the center lowering taxes by placing less strain on public services.

In response to the denials, Glenn said he instructed EMA personnel administering the survey to “get what you can” so the county can still attempt an application.

“I’m telling them, ‘Get what you can,’ and if we get denied the grant, then we get denied the grant, because they didn’t want to do the survey,” said Glenn. “I’m sorry. I’m just real passionate about this, because I’ve put my heart and soul into this, and to see it not being done because of misinformation is just really, really discouraging for me.”

Other commissioners also offered potential solutions, such as addressing the misinformation in a public announcement on Facebook before the end of the survey. Glenn agreed to the idea of announcements but rejected a suggestion to post reminders of those who had refused to take the survey, as he did not want to post residents’ addresses publicly.

The resiliency operations center is not the only infrastructure addition the Treutlen County Board of Commissioners is pursuing. During the September meeting, Glenn also presented a plan from Georgia Power to install two electric vehicle charging stations in the Board of Commissioner’s Office parking lot adjacent to the local library.

According to both Glenn and the representative of Georgia Power, the installation of the charging stations will be covered by Georgia Power. The county will pay no money for the project.

According to the representative, the charging stations will still bring traffic into Soperton despite being placed away from the main highway, as the stations will be listed on major guidance applications such as Waze.

“They know it’s here,” said the representative.

Commissioner Rodney Meeks offered a motion to approve the installation of the charging stations, which passed unanimously.