At the first meeting of the year, the Henry County Board of Commissioners took the opportunity to make several appointments and reappointments in what was an organizational meeting for the new board. Newly installed Chairman Tommy Smith took the first few minutes of the meeting to present current Commissioners and introduce himself and new members, District I Commissioner William “Bo” Moss and District III Commissioner Gary Barham, to those in attendance. Due to technical difficulties with audio, sound was not available during the live broadcast, however re-airings, beginning this week, will have sound accompaniment from a backup sound system.

  After a unanimous decision to appoint District IV Commissioner Reid Bowman as Vice Chairman of the Board and reappoint Shay Mathis as County Clerk, Commissioners approved several other board appointments.

  Appointments to the Recreation Board are as follows: District I- Robert T. Mitchell, Jr., District III-David Wilkerson, District IV-Terry Sanders and District V-Eugene Edwards.

  Appointments to the Henry County Water and Sewerage Authority are as follows: District I-Michael Barr, District III-Jimmy Carter, District IV-Harold Jenkins and District V-Carlotta Harrell.

  Appointments to the Zoning Advisory Board are as follows: District I-Alton L. Head, District II-Edward Toney, District III-Jim Risher, District IV-Vikkie McReynolds, District V-Delander Nelson and the Chairman appointment is Larry Babb.

  Appointments to the Henry County Development Authority are as follows:  District I- Geoffrey Cauble, District II-John Bozeman and District III-Charles Mobley.

  Appointments made to the Library Board are as follows: District I-Marianne Morfoot, District III-Sandy McGarity and the Chairman’s appointee is Janice Lowe.

  For the Council on Aging, appointments are as follows: District II-Geraldine Tanner and Carolyn Floyd and District III-Janie McGarity, Charlie Tomlin-son and Judy Gilbert.

  During the meeting, Smith also informed citizens that to enhance transparency in Henry County Government, from now on the Board will announce the category of the issue or issues that will be discussed in Executive Session. He also announced that the Board will work on a way to allow citizens an opportunity for public comment before an issue is voted on during a meeting.

  “We’re going to try diligently to come up with a system to allow citizens to speak during the course of an issue,” said Smith. He added that throughout the course of the year, he will update citizens on happenings and discussions taking place within County government.