Chattooga County Commissioner Elsberry is settling into his new role and already has several projects going including finding a new Public Works Director, along with finding new dumpsites.

WZQZ reached out to Commissioner Elsberry about the Public Works Director position and how the tax collection was going this year for the county.

Elsberry bragged on Tax Commissioner Joy Hampton and the employees for a job well done. “We are at 90.05% of tax collections for the year, so that is a record for us.  Joy Hampton, the tax commissioners office staff, and the tax assessors office has done a fantastic job during this tax season. Especially given the circumstances with the pandemic.”

Additionally as much as the new Commissioner would like to start moving away from the Tax Anticipation Notes, it doesn’t look like this year he is going to be able to. “As much as I would like to not have to rely on a TAN note this year, getting away from that is going to be a work in progress. In years past we have had to use it as early as January, but right now it looks as if we may be able to hold off using it until the end of February.”

Commissioner Elsberry also has the task of finding two new dumpsites for the county. One will be located on the east side of Taylor Ridge, and the other one will be in Menlo. The current dumpsite on Hwy 48 across from the Barn Dance is being sold by the property owners. That dump site will be closing on February 28th. No new sites have been named as of yet.

Today was officially the last day to turn in an application for the position of Public Works Director and so far about 12-15 applicants have applied. Elsberry hopes to start reviewing them soon and will hopefully be able to make a decision by the first week of February.