As more people live in Henry County, more people die here.
That means an increased case load for the coroner’s office. In 2021 there were 653 such calls, sometimes one right after another. Typically chief coroner Donald Cleveland has handled all of the office’s administrative duties as well as a large portion of those calls, with the remainder falling to an on-call/part-time deputy coroner who works another full-time job.
As Cleveland informed the Henry County Board of Commissioners recently, keeping up with the workload in a county of more than 240,000 people has become impossible. The board recognized this and voted at its Feb. 15 regular meeting to approve his request to convert the current part-time position to full-time employment with benefits, creating a chief deputy coroner position.
The fact that the part-time deputy coroner position was created as recently as January of 2019 illustrates how fast the office’s load has increased. Cleveland noted that has an effect on other agencies as well, with police and/or EMS having to wait at a location awaiting a coroner who is delayed because of a previous call. The full-time position will allow for more efficient response time and give other public safety personnel an opportunity to return to their regular duties sooner, Cleveland said.
The chief deputy coroner will also help in the day-to-day administrative duties that include answering phone calls, assisting with open records requests, and follow-up investigations. Cleveland’s position is an elected one.
In other Board of Commissioners business, separate resolutions were approved authorizing grant applications for the 2023 fiscal year from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council on behalf of the Juvenile Mental Health Court, Adult Felony Drug Court, Resource Court, Veterans Treatment Court, and DUI/Drug Court.
Two rezoning requests were approved. One was for an R-3 single-family subdivision on a 38-acre site consisting of two tracts on Hwy. 138 just east of Flat Rock Road. The other was for RS (residential suburban) zoning to allow single-family homes and townhomes on 301 acres south of Old Hwy. 3 and Steele Road, west of North Steele Drive, east of Lovejoy Road and north of Hwy. 81. In the discussion of each item, commissioner Johnny Wilson brought up concerns about revisiting the need to increase impact fees and approving any new policy in that regard before continuing to approve new development in the county. Board chair Carlotta Harrell stated her agreement with Wilson on the issue and said it will be brought up in a March meeting. Both rezoning requests were approved 4-1 with Wilson voting in opposition.
The board approved the bid award for the construction of Reeves Road drainage pipe replacement and improvement to Helix Group of Fairburn in the amount of $176,975. Also approved was a bid award to Hortman and Sons Enterprises for repair and/or replacement of all wooden window frames and trim on the old section of the Superior Courthouse at a cost of $74,900 using Capital Improvement Plan funds.
A professional service agreement with Nickel Works Consulting at $11,855 was authorized for the development of a feasibility study for a community improvement district (CID) along the Highway 138 corridor. A separate resolution approved by the board authorizes the application for federal funds to start a fixed-route local bus service in response to a call for projects from the Atlanta-Region Transit Link Authority.
