Soperton City Council Retains Westview Cemetery Lawncare Contractor

The Soperton City Council accepted a bid to retain the Westview Cemetery’s current lawncare maintenance contractor during their monthly meeting on May 18, following policy changes around the position.

The council had recently passed new ordinances rendering the city not liable for damages to headstones, monuments and other non-city property. Since the current contractor’s term expires in May, they opted to re-bid the service to find a contractor with general liability insurance to cover damages.

“If we do re-bid it out, we can give the ordinance so they’ll know we’re not responsible for anything,” said City Clerk Samantha Richards.

The contractor would be required to cut the grass at Westview Cemetery twice per month from March to September, which is the grass growing season, and then cut as needed from October to February. The contract would last for one year.

The council received 10 bids for the contract, including a bid from current contract holder Priority Lawn Pros, LLC. The bids were compared to the previous contract, which saw the city pay $1,700 bi-weekly for the lawncare service.

While the bids varied in price, the councilmembers were more concerned with a contractor’s experience with cemeteries.

“It’s our duty to go out and solicit bids every year to find out if we can get, you know, and there are several that are cheaper, but cheaper is not always better,” said Soperton Mayor John Koon. 

As such, Councilmember Kendra Madison-Harswell offered a motion to accept the bid from the incumbent contract holder, Priority Lawn Pros, which passed unanimously.

Madison-Harswell also offered a motion, at Mayor Koon’s recommendation, to dismiss Soperton’s emergency burn ban, which passed unanimously.

“I talked with Chief [John Johnson] today to do that,” said Koon. “He is comfortable with lifting the city’s, because of the response time, and plus, we’ve had some good rain, and hopefully we won’t go through that again.”

Councilmember Andrew Simons also approached the council during their work session seeking permission to pursue a consolidation of the Soperton and Treutlen County fire departments. While the council did give permission, Mayor Koon emphasized the consolidation would only apply to the fire departments, which already collaborate closely.

“From an inside the park perspective on that, we operate as one department,” said Simons. “This unit operates as one of our departments. It’s one group of first responders, one fire department.”

Andrew Johnson, geotechnical engineer and owner of Construction Material Services (CMS), spoke to the council during their work session, asking the council to continue using the company’s services. Johnson was originally slated to speak during the main meeting, but spoke during the work session instead.

CMS provides assistance to local Georgia communities for LMIG and TIA projects. According to Johnson, the company has been working with the city of Soperton since 2012.

“So, I was thinking about that, and in 2012, I was 48,” said Johnson. “I’m 62 now. So, 14 years, that kind of puts it in perspective a little bit.”

In that time, CMS has worked on 50 roads and 58 miles of roadway, for between $4.8 million to $5 million in construction value. The company also provides road sampling services.

Johnson approached the council due to concerns the city would stop utilizing CMS for its LMIG and TIA projects due to payment issues regarding projects on Second Street and Evans Street. According to Johnson, those issues were due to unresponsive contractors, which he described as uncharacteristic for CMS.

The council took no official action regarding CMS, but Mayor Koon said he was satisfied with Johnson’s presentation and work for the city, despite having complaints on the payment issues.

“Just a word of thanks to the city, for all that y’all allowed us to do these past 14 years,” said Johnson. “I’ve been through three mayors. I don’t know how many city council people we’ve been through, but we’ve always tried to be trustworthy, responsible and responsive.”