Wednesday, June 28, 2023–9:52 a.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
The Floyd County Commission has voted to accept a Public Safety and Community Violence Reduction grant in the amount of $1,012,303.03.
The grants were announced earlier this month by Governor Brian Kemp.
The money will be used for the Floyd County Sentry Initiative and the funding of a full-time crime analyst position at the Floyd County Police Department as well as providing technology and equipment for that position.
The funds will also help pay for a new patrol vehicle and equipment upgrades.
The Sentry Initiative’s goal is to create an intelligence hub to aid other law enforcement agencies in preventing community violence, apprehending child predators, stopping human trafficking, and addressing the uptick in more technologically-based crimes as a result of the lockdown during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Also Tuesday, the county commission also approved the Cave Spring Fire Budget for fiscal year 2023-2024.
“As you are aware, we do fund a portion of their operation as well as capital and two additional positions,” said Floyd County Manager Jamie McCord. “The increase over last year is $15,885.”
The county has also joined the city in approving an amendment to the Unified Land Development Code to enact changes required by recent amendments to the zoning procedures law, as planning director Brice Wood explained.
“This is strictly a procedural matter,” he said. “It keeps us in compliance with House Bill 1405, which goes into effect next week. We actually implemented it six months ahead of time and it only changes how we advertise zoning and special use permit requests. It will also affect variance requests and HPC [historic preservation] requests.”
Commissioners also appointed Elizabeth Dunay to the planning commission to fill an unexpired term of Ivy Lowry.