Bryan County Commissioners have lowered their portion of the overall millage rate every year since 2016, when the county’s hit on property owners was 9.185 mills.

They did it again last week, rolling it back to 5.57 mills, one of the lowest in the state, during the board’s Sept. 9 meeting.

“I think we have the fifth or sixth lowest millage rate in the state right now,” Commission Chairman Carter Infinger said. “So I want to say thank you to our staff, for all the work you’ve done on this. It’s something to be proud of.”

Other commissioners concurred. 

But at least one resident attending the September meeting thinks a higher millage rate might be in order, if it would help support a new jail. 

Richmond Hill businessman Sean Register, who has long served on the Development Authority of Bryan County, including stints as chairman of the Development Authority of Bryan County interim CEO, said as much during public comments at the tail end of the meeting.

His suggestion property owners might not mind paying property taxes that were a “hair higher,” to fund a new jail was met by Infinger with “it would be more than just a hair, it might be two or three hairs.”

Register’s comments followed remarks from both Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney Billy Joe Nelson and Bryan County Solicitor General Don Montgomery – both of whom characterized the overcrowding situation at the jail as dire.

Their comments came near the end of the meeting, long after Sheriff Mark Crowe addressed commissioners and requested both a new, larger jail and a training center be included in the county’s immediate plans.

The current jail is “officially out of room,” Crowe told commissioners. “The current facility is overcrowded, outdated and no longer meets the demands of our growing population,” and is putting deputies, jail staff and inmates at risk.

He added, “we have reached the point where doing what we have been doing is no longer an option.”

Bryan County’s current jail was built in 1997 in Pembroke to hold 68 inmates, but with the county’s booming population growth – recent estimates put the population at more than 52,000, up around 30,000 from 1997, when the county had roughly 22,200 residents -- Bryan has become the second busiest county as far as crime statistics go in the six-county Atlantic Judicial Circuit and trailing only Liberty County, according to Nelson.

That’s largely due to the increased population, not a lack of law enforcement, he added.

Montgomery, who handles misdemeanor crime, said there are time warrants that haven't been served because there isn’t space to hold inmates.

“Unfortunately, it’s getting to the point now it’s about who gets let out, not who gets to stay in, because they just don’t have the room,” he said.

Infinger insisted the county is working on a new jail but “we don’t want to get in a situation like Long County where they’ve got a new jail but can’t afford to run it.”

He also noted that Crowe’s budget when he took office in 2020 was $6.6 million and is now over $12 million, prompting Crowe to respond, “so has the population.”

Infinger told each of the speakers a new jail is on the county's front burner. 

“I’ve committed to the sheriff on this,” he said. “But we've got to find a place to put it and how to pay for it.”

Mock tribute

Commissioners also honored longtime school board member Billy Mock, who is 101. Mock served in the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean War before becoming a teacher, with a proclamation during the meeting in honor of his patriotic service to the community.

Mock, whose wife Rose is District 1 Commissioner Alex Floyd’s grandmother, thanked commissioners for the proclamation and told them he was happy to get out of the house for a while.

Whitten is a correspondent for the News.