Editor’s note: This is the third in a series on issues raised by a recent countywide retreat.

When Georgia Department of Transportation board member Ann Purcell spoke to a gathering of local leaders at the Sept. 24 communitywide planning retreat, she preached the virtues of the penny sales tax for transportation, also known as TSPLOST.
“The three regions that passed it started gathering that 1 percent extra in January and the state issued them the first check in June — and let me tell you, those folks didn’t know what to do with all that money,” she said, noting her hometown of Glennville now has enough money to repave every street in the city.
Purcell was definitely preaching to the choir among those leaders gathered at the Richmond Hill City Center.
Though T-SPLOST, short for transportation special local option sales tax, passed in Bryan County and four other coastal counties when it was placed on the ballot in July 2012, it was defeated in the region, which left the county back where it started before the vote — with a myriad of road infrastructure needs and little in the way to fund them.

Read full story in Oct. 5 issue of the Bryan County News.