In February alone, Bryan County Community Development employees conducted 494 inspections and issued 65 building permits.
During the same month, Bryan County Animal Control reported its officers responded to 34 animal service cases – and there were 39 dogs and 24 cats residing in the county’s shelters.
Also in February, the county’s Fire and Rescue answered 487 EMS calls and 209 fire calls, bringing the year to date totals at that point up to 989 and 464, respectively.
And, after 10 months of collecting Special Local Option Sales Taxes, or SPLOST, under the eighth SPLOST approved by voters, the county is averaging $1,196,937 a month. That SPLOST began in May 2024 and will continue until March 2030.
Details on previous SPLOST cycles are also included, and make up just part of a wealth of information emailed by County Clerk Lori Tyson once a month in PDF form to commissioners and others in what’s called the Bryan County Commission workbook.
It's an exercise in transparency and can be a lengthy tome – workbooks have often weighed in at more than 400 pages, some of it documentation of various projects and plans and couched in legalese or government terminology, as well as a collection of agendas, meeting minutes and charts tracking tax revenue and spending, as well as monthly reports from each of the county’s departments.
By contrast, the 190-page workbook sent out for the April meeting was relatively light reading, but still provides insight into a county government busy trying to keep up with years of change wrought by rapid residential and, more recently, industrial growth.
Here’s a sample of some of what was in April’s workbook, focusing on an update on the status of major projects:
Among projects listed are plans for the future of the intersection of Highway 280 and Highway 80 in Blitchton. A Georgia Department of Transportation project, work on the concept is ongoing and will likely be a roundabout of some sort, according to previous discussions. No budget for the project has been announced, according to the workbook.
A series of roundabouts are also part of $80 million in GDOT funded work currently being done on what the county calls the Highway 280 corridor near the Hyundai plant. That work should be complete sometime in the fall, according to the update.
Another roundabout on 280 at Wilma Edwards Road is currently out for bid, with work anticipated to be done by next summer. It is expected to cost $3.2 million in Transportation Special Local Option Sales Tax, or TSPLOST, funds.
The new interchange at I-16 and Old Cuyler Road east of the 280 interchange is still in the design stages, but is expected to be built by the second quarter of 2027. It will cost GDOT some $140 million.
In South Bryan, roundabouts at Belfast Keller at Cranston Bluff Road and the main entrance of the new Richmond Hill High School are projected to be completed this month. The $14.5 million project is being funded by TSPLOST.
Work on Brisbon Road from Harris Trail to Highway 144, including a sidewalk along the entire length of the road and alongside Harris Trail to Timber Trail, is underway and should be finished later this year. The $3.9 million TSPLOST funded work is a joint project between Bryan County and the city of Richmond Hill.
Another joint project involving both the city and county, the Harris Trail Pedestrian Bridge, is again up for bid this month and could be complete early in 2026. It is another TSPLOST-funded effort and is expected to cost around $1.4 million.
A $1.4 million roundabout project at the intersection of Level Road, Belfast Keller and Highway 144 is underway and could be done later this year. It will include burial of overhead electrical and cable utilities, and is a joint project between Bryan County and GDOT.
Improvements on Jernigan Road near the Oracal Parkway are in the works as well, and the $2.4 million project – with about $700,000 in GDOT funding – is expected to be complete by the summer of 2026.
The ongoing Bulloch County and Bryan County regional water supply project, which is being done in phases and includes four wells drilled in Bulloch with two to be owned by Bryan and two by Bulloch, is expected to be entirely complete by the second quarter of 2026. The $97 million project is being federally funded through the state under the American Rescue Plan Act.
A Hyundai Mega-Site water tower is nearly ready to open in the second quarter of this year. The ARPA funded $13.7 million water tank will hold 2 million gallons and includes a mural by students at Savannah College of Art and Design.
The North Bryan Regional Wastewater Facility, a membrane bioreactor wastewater reclamation facility, could be started up in the third quarter of this year as work progresses.
The facility, which officials say will create clean water usable for irrigation purposes, can treat up to 5 million gallons of wastewater a day and is expandable to treat as much as 10 million gallons a day. The $129 million project is being funded by ARPA and the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority.
Work on the Mega-Site water and sewer expansion is expected to be complete in the second quarter of this year. The $38.2 million project is ARPA funded.
Similarly, extending water and sewer infrastructure along Genesis Drive to service future development is expected to begin soon and will be finished in the second quarter of 2026.
Other major projects being tackled by the county include the Fisherman’s Co-Op, which could be finished by the end of May. The highly-publicized and much anticipated park and boating area in South Bryan is expected to cost $4.6 million and is being funded by a combination of SPLOST and state Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program funding.
Also highly anticipated are a number of projects involving recreation – among them the already completed Henderson Park Expansion, which cost $3 million in SPLOST funding and includes baseball fields, concession stands and a restroom and more parking. That project came in under budget, according to the county.
The $9.5 million South Bryan Senior Center was finished in January. The North Bryan Senior Center at McFadden and Ware Street in Pembroke is under construction and expected to be finished in August. It is funded by a $1 million Community Development Block Grant and $1.22 million in SPLOST.
South Bryan’s new 4,400-square foot animal control facility is under construction and expected to be ready for opening this summer. The $1 million project is being funded with SPLOST.
Already complete are Bryan County Fire and Emergency Service stations No. 5 and No. 8. The new stations include living quarters for on-shift firefighters and EMS personnel and cost $1.2 million. The stations were funded by SPLOST.