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Barrow ... Journal www.BarrowJournal.com Or Read all over... Wednesday, November 26,2008 Vol. 1 No. 5 20 PAGES 2 SECTIONS A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. WINDER, BARROW COUNTY GEORGIA 30680 25c COPY — Inside — Area news: •Fire displaces family on Cardinal Lane page 6A •Auburn seeks to do bonds without vote page 3A Barrow budget facing tight crunch Another tax bill one option being weighed by officials BY SUSAN NORMAN Just two months into its new fiscal year, Barrow County’s government is facing a budget crunch. Chief Financial Officer Beth Horacek and Chief Administrator Keith Lee were scheduled to address the issue Nov. 25 before the Barrow County Board of Commissioners. One of the options they planned to put on the table is the possibility of sending out supplemental tax bills in early 2009 to cover some of the shortfall. The BOC meeting was scheduled for Tuesday night, after this week’s deadline, but in an interview last week, Lee talked about a projected revenue shortfall of at least $1.3 mil lion. The biggest financial hit to date has been caused by Gov. Sonny Perdue’s decision to withhold $700,000 to reimburse the county for state-spon sored, $8,000 homestead exemptions. The governor’s decision, which must be endorsed by the Georgia General Assembly in January, also threatens $2.1 million in funding for Barrow County’s public schools. In addition, the economic downturn is hitting two other regular sources of county revenue, building permit fees and landfill tipping fees. “We only issued five building per mits last month,” Lee said. “That certainly can have a serious impact on revenues.” So far in 2008, the county has issued only 208 building permits. That is just over a fourth of the per mits issued in 2006. Lee now projects only $150,000 in revenues from building permit fees during the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 2009 - a $350,000 drop from what was anticipated. And Lee said he also expects the county to take in $300,000 less in landfill tipping fees for the year. “We don’t have people buying as much, so there is a decline in KEITH LEE the retail mar kets,” he said. “And we don’t have the construction industry building. A lot of debris is not being taken to the landfill.” continued on page 10A Opinions: •Political junkie gets to share the spotlight page 4A Sports: •WBHS basketball teams begin new season at tournament page 3B •Apalachee sweeps Commerce in basketball opener page 4B Other News: •Legion News pages 12A •Public Safety pages 6-8A •Church News page 6B •Obituaries page 11A Holiday activities to begin People longing for a cup of old-fashioned Christmas cheer will not have to wait much longer. Chateau Elan will hold its annual “Lighting of the Chateau” this Friday and the City of Auburn is hosting its Christmas celebration Saturday. In Auburn, the fun begins at 6 p.m. Saturday with the holiday illu mination of downtown timed to the singing of traditional Christmas car ols by church choirs, offi cials said. “We’ll sing ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ and light the star on the water tower,” said Charlotte Ewing, coordinator of parks and leisure. “Then ‘Away in the Manger’ and light up the gazebo, which has been turned into a manger scene. continued on page 10A Journal to publish kids photos for Christmas The Barrow Journal will publish photos of your children and grand children in our Christmas week editon. You can send in photos of your child with Santa, a school photo, or a photo that you make at home. Children must be under 12-years-old. The deadline for pho tos is Dec. 3. The photo graphs may be mailed or dropped by the Barrow Journal at 77 East May Street, Winder, Ga. 30680 or you can email your photo to news@barrow- journal.com. Include the child’s name, parents or grand parents name and town. The child or a parent or grandparent must live in Barrow County. Cost for the photo is $10 for a single child’s photo or $15 for a photo of multiple children. You can pick up the pho tos you send in after the Dec. 24 Barrow Journal edition at the Journal office. Mayor rips Barrow tax break Graham questions industrial warehouse incentives i COLLIERS SPECTRUM CAUBLE Available (404) 888-9000 *w*.£o«ieFiigjBewuines*kie t i:om 80,000 to 439,338 S.F. Price Weaver 1 Steve Grable 1 ■ v - 'tty •■••?/ ■ fc its. tci. Oi V. U.ii .-if READY FOR SALE Commonwealth warehouse sits ready for lease. A large tax break given to a $12.5 million industrial ware house in Northern Barrow County has come under fire by the mayor of Braselton. The Joint Development Authority of Barrow County and Winder-Barrow Industrial Building Authority agreed earlier this month to a $12.5 million industrial revenue bond for a 444,000 sq - ft PAT GRAHAM warehouse and 24.6 acres of land on Hwy. 124 in the Town of Braselton. The facility is owned by Commonwealth Braselton LLC, a commercial real estate firm with properties around the Southeast. Construction on the Braselton warehouse is almost completed. The JDA’s deal with Commonwealth exempts the warehouse and 24.6 acres from both Barrow school and county property taxes. In effect, the JDA takes owner ship of the building and leases it back to the original devel opers. The developers in turn pay a lease on the facility back to the JDA to cover the yearly bond payments. But because the JDA is a government entity, the prop erty is not subject to local property taxes. Instead, Barrow County has a seven-year tax phase-in where the firm will pay taxes on the “lease hold interest” starting at five percent the first year and phasing into 100 percent in year eight. The deal will save Commonwealth thousands — even hundreds of thousands — of dollars in county and school property taxes that the firm would have otherwise had to pay on the property. Barrow County Chief Appraiser Cecil Highfield said that the county would go out to the facility and do an appraisal just like it would any other facility. The tax phase-in on the lease would then be based on that appraisal. The complex financial structure is commonly used by counties and some towns as an incentive to lure indus trial development to a com munity. But not all counties struc ture the deal the same way and Barrow’s incentives deal appears to be generous and less strict compared to some other area counties. MAYOR OBJECTS TO DEAL Braselton Mayor Pat Graham, whose town includes the Commonwealth project, believes Barrow’s tax abate ment deal was unnecessary and ill-advised. She said that the project doesn’t meet her view of how governments should dole out tax incen tives. “I strongly believe that tax abatements should only be given to employers that are creating new high-paying jobs within our community,” she said. continued on page 10A Barrow-Hall hospital fight in judge’s hands By Susan Norman Litigation that could reshape the nature of healthcare providers in Barrow County is now in the hands of Superior Court Judge Robert Adamson and a decision could come before the end of the year. At issue is a legal fight between Barrow Regional Medical Center in Winder and Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville over NGMC’s plans to build a 100-bed hospital in Braselton near Chateau Elan. BRMC opposes the idea, fearing such a move would hurt the Barrow County hospi tal. Hospital lawyers argue that state officials didn’t follow the proper procedure allowing permits for the new facility. At the end of a two-hour hearing Monday in Barrow County Superior Court, Judge Adamson said he would issue his decision on the appeal by Barrow County Medical Center in two or three weeks. Armando L. Basarrate, an attorney for the Gainesville-based NGMC, argued during the hearing that the hospital’s application for a state-issued Certificate of Need has been through two administrative appeals and that the court’s power at this point is limited. He BARROW REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER said case law has shown that agency decisions in such matters are “not to be taken lightly by the judiciary.” However, Adamson said there is “some purpose for the courts in this process.” His decision, he said, would be based on whether objections raised by the hospital’s opponent “rise or fall within those purposes.” And the decision will be “difficult,” the judge said. “I always take seriously the limita tions in my scope of review when dealing with (state) agency cases.” Local man charged in child rape BY SUSAN NORMAN A 39-year-old Statham man is in the Barrow County Detention Center after video taping his own alleged rape of a 9-year-old local girl. “The perpetrator video taped it and we have the vid eotape, so he’s going to jail on this one,” said Statham Chief of Police Roger E. Tripp. Alan Richard Konwinski’s alleged crime came to light Nov. 17, when his girlfriend stopped by his Dooley Town Road apartment while he was at work. She just happened to view the homemade vid eotape and recognized the victim. “She knows the family,” Tripp said. The woman went to the girl’s home in Statham and told her parents what she had seen. The girl's father then went to the apartment, looked at the tape, returned home and called police. Two Statham officers then went to the family’s home and after the parents told them what they had learned, one of the officers drove to Konwinski’s apartment to secure access to it. The police then requested a search war rant and waited for the con struction worker to show up after work. Konwinski was arrested the same day at 6:44 p.m. during a traffic stop. A neigh bor riding with him, 38-year- old Darrell W. Lamp of 1895 Dooley Town Road, also was arrested on an unrelated war rant from another jurisdic tion. Tripp said Konwinski did not resist arrest and made no statements to police. “He was very quiet,” the chief said. Konwinski was charged with rape, aggravated sod omy, statutory rape, child molestation, sexual exploita tion of a child, enticing a child for indecent purpos es, possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana and having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle. During a search of the apartment, police confiscated two computer hard drives, VHS tapes, CDs, and High-8 videotapes. “We were just looking for homemade stuff that might have additional victims on them," the chief said. “It’s an open investigation. There might be more charges pend ing.” continued on page 10A