Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson presented her proposed budget on Tuesday to guide County government spending for the 2024 fiscal year. The proposed budget for 2024 totals $2.5 billion. It consists of a $1.96 billion operating budget and a $542 million capital improvements budget, which includes funds from the County’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax program.
Chairwoman Hendrickson said the proposed budget addresses challenges facing the County, including hiring and retaining a qualified workforce, affordable housing and public safety. “Our 2024 proposed budget focuses on ensuring that we can maintain our exceptional services while prioritizing the rapidly changing needs of our residents and businesses,” said Hendrickson. “With this budget, we’re taking prudent steps to address priorities like infrastructure, sustainability and a healthy community that not only impact our county today but sets us up for success long into the future.”
Under the proposed budget, the County will develop a biosolids dryer facility to reduce the environmental impact and cost of transporting waste material from the F. Wayne Hill Water Resources Center to landfills, update the Solid Waste Management Plan and continue to enhance the Gwinnett Trails network as part of its sustainability efforts.
As Gwinnett continues to grow, a healthy community remains a priority. The budget also includes steps to improve access to affordable housing, a health care initiative investing in mental and chronic health care, additional positions to handle 911 calls and additional staff and vehicles for Gwinnett Fire and Emergency Services.
The proposed 2024 budget resolution is available online at GwinnettCounty.com and as a hard copy in the Financial Services office at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center in Lawrenceville during business hours, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Commissioners will hold a public hearing at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center on December 4 at 6:30 p.m., and residents can offer input on the County’s website through December 31. Commissioners will consider the 2024 budget at their first meeting of the new year on January 2, 2024
Marine vet finds new life, heading GGC’s development
May
By Ken Scar
NOV. 17, 2023 | Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) development director Matthew May had arrived at a crossroads in his life when he came to the Marine Corps — or rather, the Marine Corps came to him. He was 20 years old and had just failed out of college, squandering the soccer scholarship he’d earned as a star player growing up in Chicago.
Scar
May says: “I was sitting on the couch watching television, wondering, ‘What am I going to do with my life?’ when a commercial for the Marine Corps came on,” He got off the couch, went to the local recruiting station, and joined that day. “Once I failed in life, I had to take a hard look in the mirror, and the Marine Corps was the answer,” he feels.
May spent six years, from 2007 to 2013, as an infantry rifleman, including two tours of duty in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, and rose to the rank of sergeant. The day-to-day problems in the civilian workforce, safely back home within friendly U.S. borders, don’t seem that dire to those who’ve had to make life-and-death decisions while being shot at, a perspective that aided him greatly as he transitioned back into civilian life.
May never lost his desire to earn a college degree, so the first thing he did after taking off the uniform was enroll in a North Carolina community college, and at the same time, work as a car salesman to pay the bills. When his ex-wife moved to Georgia, May moved to Lawrenceville to be closer to his three children. It was then that May first set his eyes on GGC.
“I was determined to get a college degree,” he says. “GGC was my fifth college and by far the best in my eyes. All the new technology appealed to me, but especially the small class sizes. Being around large groups of people isn’t ideal for some of us veterans, and I’m low-key and not good at school, so having one-on-one time with teachers was priceless. That got me through.”
May received a business administration degree with a management concentration in 2018. At the time, he never would have imagined his path would circle back to his alma mater, but life, like war, is nothing if not unpredictable.
He worked as an account executive at a telecommunications company and later in business development in the aerospace and defense arena. “It was a lot of travel. I missed my kids’ soccer tournaments sometimes, and it got to the point where I just wanted to be grounded again and not have to travel to the airport every week.”
When he came across a job posting for a prospect development manager position at GGC, a job involving work with potential donors, he got the job. He recently was promoted to the role of development director.
“I never thought of higher education. It was unexpected but exhilarating.” He now lives two miles from campus and has about a five-minute commute. His children are less than 20 minutes away.
It’s been a long, sometimes harrowing road from Marine Corps boot camp to the GGC campus, but May says he’s grateful for the journey. It brought him to a job he enjoys in a place he loves, with time to spend with his kids. God works in mysterious ways. He doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle, and the rewards can be great.”
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