NAHUNTA — Local officials met with helping partners Thursday morning to talk about the next steps to unify in moving the county forward as the Hwy. 82 fire is primarily contained.
“This meeting (May 7 at Nahunta Methodist Church) was all about recovery,” said County Manager Joey Cason. “We’re bringing all the partners who are trying to unify all of the different faces of people who are willing to be so generous and donate time, donate funds and donate resources all into one space.
“This helps so that we have a concerted effort to basically rebuild our community. The good news is hallelujah ... we hope to be 90 percent contained by the end of today (Thursday). The red team and all the guys that are still here are trying to wrap that up and really bring it down to a compact, small area.”
County officials also discussed aiding residents with cleanup.
“We are in the process of getting rolloffs delivered for debris,” said Cason. “The county transfer station will accept debris at no charge. The county has also waived the fees for permitting inside the fire zone. So, citizens can go to our building and planning office and that will be resolved for them.”
Brantley County has also contracted with H2O Creative to develop a new recovery site for citizens, hwy82firerecovery. com. This site collates multiple different contacts for aid and resources.
“We have also set up the County main number with a specific option to call into,” Cason added.
The county manager also stated Brantley County’s volunteer fire departments have assumed responsibility for local fire protection along with Georgia Forestry, which started Friday, May 8.
“We do have resources on standby if the fire does rekindle,” said Cason.
What also happened Thursday is several local organizations were given a charitable gift for their hard work during the Hwy. 82 fire.
Five volunteer fire departments in Brantley County were given $15,000 to split. Southside Baptist Church received $12,000.
“It’s awesome,” said Cason referencing the donations. “We’re pretty inundated with supplies, and the issue with that is that folks who lost their home don’t have anywhere to put supplies, and so getting a monetary donation like helps us further down the road.”
He went on to say all local donations not going through the local faith community are being directed through Family Connection.
“County staff is working in conjunction with Family Connection to ensure the integrity of donations of any type, including financial will be properly maintained and disbursed,” said Cason. “A small committee of local leaders will help oversee the use of donated items.”
