RAEFORD — Hoke County has gotten yet another charitable donation from a local business.
At its Feb. 3 regular business meeting, the Hoke County Board of Commissioners was presented with a donation of $500,000 in services from J and K General Contractors for the Tylertown Fire Department.
“You cannot build a county off of the backs of people,” said vice chair Harry Southerland. “You can’t tax them to death. You have to build it with partnerships, and J and K has been a good partner to Hoke County.”
The money will be used to construct a 4,000-square-foot multiuse building for the Tylertown Fire Department to house their fire trucks and equipment.
“They’ve attempted to, in the past, expand the building, renovate the building, and their attempts have been unsuccessful,” said J and K Finance Manager Matthew Carvell. “They haven’t been able to secure any kind of funding or grant money, so Jamal (Shabain) and other executive leaders at J and K got together and decided that they would like to do something for the Tylertown Fire Department to help support them. They have various fire trucks and various fire equipment, apparel and machinery that currently has nowhere to be housed and it is sitting out in the elements.”
Work is expected to start some time in March and take six months to complete.
“We are actively trying to ensure that we are involving ourselves in the right types of community products that are supporting the right department heads for Hoke County as Hoke County continues to grow and continues to expand,” Carvell said.
“I want to thank J and K for their contribution to our fire department,” said Fire Chief Hervon McCollum. “We have been to banks and we’ve been all around looking for someone to help us out, and one day, we ran up on a young man and he said, ‘I like what y’all are doing over there, I want to help y’all.’ And that was Jamal, and I want to thank him for what he’s done.”
J and K also gave an update on their plans for the refurbishment of the Hoke County Animal Shelter, which they pledged $200,000 in services for back in August.
“When we put together our charitable donation, we didn’t want to just do anything,” Carvell said. “We wanted to make sure what we’re delivering is specific, realistic and makes sense for what the needs are.”
The current plan is to enclose the exterior section of the shelter to better protect those animals from the elements and add 18 additional kennels in a new, enclosed and secure area where sick or aggressive animals can be held.
However, as J and K does not normally deal with animal shelters, they ran into an issue with new state septic requirements which will not allow for the disposal of septic waste from the shelter into the current county system.
Instead, a new septic system will have to be constructed which according to J and K, will cost between $65,000 and $100,000.
“Unfortunately for the project, it is quite a sizable cost to make an environmentally compliant septic system based on what we’ve been told,” Carvell said. “It’s not something we had anticipated coming across as we don’t normally work with animal shelters, so we’ve been working behind the scenes to try and come up with a plan to try and move past that problem.”
The board tabled the item to allow more time for them to discuss the best path forward.
The board also held a public hearing for a rezoning request for approximately 12 acres of property located on Aberdeen Road from Neighborhood Business to Highway Commercial.
Currently, the developer does not have a plan for the property.
“As a developer, it would be great if we could come in here and tell you,” said Rhetson Companies Development Manager Greg Stewart. “We do have some people that are interested, but until we get some surveys, environmental testing, geotech to see what building it can support, we really won’t know.”
Following the hearing, the board approved the request.
“Commercial, that means tax dollars are on the way,” said Chairman James Leach. “We love commercial. It brings tax dollars and keeps your tax rate low.”
The Hoke County Board of Commissioners will next meet Feb. 17.