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Bryan among fastest growing counties in the nation
Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 18, 2016, 3:03 PM
Published: May 18, 2016, 3:04 PM

Bryan County was the 27th fastest growing county in the nation from 2010 to 2015, and 22nd for just 2015, according to information presented at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting.

The county grew 16 percent from 2010 to 2015, U.S. Census Bureau numbers show, adding nearly 5,000 residents, with a 3.6 percent growth in 2015. And 2016 appears to be on track to top that.

County Administrator Ben Taylor said there have been 101 single-family home permits issued through the first four months of this year, a 44 percent increase over the same time period a year ago. Taylor noted that those permits take into account only the unincorporated portion of the county, not the city of Richmond Hill.

In 2015, there were 252 single-family home permits issued by the county, and another 127 in Richmond Hill.

With that growth, however, comes more demand for services, Taylor said. EMS calls, for example, have increased from 2,900 in 2012 to 3,440 in 2015.

“The number of fire runs has remained stable though,” he said. “Mostly because all the new construction is up to code.”

Taylor also said the county added about 3 miles of roads last year, primarily because of new subdivisions.

Commissioner Noah Covington said his research found that Bryan County has the 26th lowest tax rate of the 159 counties in Georgia.

“That speaks volumes for what we’ve been doing,” he said. “Especially when you consider that we have a lot of redundant services due to being split in two.”

In other business, new Commissioner Dallas Daniel was sworn in by Probate Judge Sam Davis. Daniel was appointed at the April meeting to represent District 4 until a permanent replacement is elected in November. Former Commissioner Carter Infinger resigned the post in March to run for board chairman. State law prohibits a person from holding one elective office while seeking another.

In another matter, Taylor told commissioners the county is getting close to seeking bids to replace the fire station on Daniel Siding Road. A new 3,400-square-foot station will cost about $300,000 and be built next to the existing one. Taylor said the current station will be retained and used for road maintenance operations.

Commissioners also approved spending $467,000 to resurface Oakhill, Williamson, Warnell and Charles Shuman roads.

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Later yall, its been fun
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Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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