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Barrow Journal www.BarrowJournal.com •r Read all over... Wednesday, January 14,2009 Vol. 1 No. 12 18 PAGES 2 SECTIONS A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. WINDER, BARROW COUNTY GEORGIA 30680 250COPY — Inside — Area news: \j •Century-old building to be moved Thursday page 3A •Zoning approved in Braselton page 3A •Braselton begins work on 20-year plan page 3A Opinions: •State political eyes begin looking to 2010 page 4A •BOC: Don't build a camel page 4A Sports: •WBHS, AHS wrestling teams battle at area teams duals page 1B •Wildcats, Lady Bulldoggs post win in rivalry contest page 1B •Bulldoggs hold off fourth quarter rally by Red Raiders page 2B Other News: •Birth Announcement page 7B •Church News page 7B •Public Safety pages 6-7A •Obituaries pages 7B •School News pages 5B To subscribe, call today: 770-867-NEWS (6397). The Barrow Journal is delivered every Thursday. Animal control puts down wrong dog BY SUSAN NORMAN The Barrrow County Animal Control office accidentally put to death the wrong dog last week. The Jan. 8 incident came to light in an email from an anonymous source that raised questions about the quality of care at the shelter. Assistant Barrow County adminis trator Michael Fisher acknowledged the staff’s mistake Tuesday. He said the black lab, which had been in an incident with another dog, was in the shelter for a 10-day quarantine to watch for rabies. Euthanizations were scheduled for last Wednesday and a different black lab was to be put down. “There were three black labs in the shelter all on that same day going through this process; that’s part of the paperwork confusion,” Fisher said. “This dog, through some issues with paperwork, was brought in with the other dogs. We inadvertently euthanized the wrong animal.” Fisher said animal control direc tor Stephen Eades called the dog’s owner, who then talked to the employee who handled her animal’s intake. “Of course, we offered to help out in any way to see if she wanted to replace the dog or adopt one. At this point, she’s got a couple of other dogs at the house and she declined to worry about getting another dog right now,” Fisher said. The owner has not filed a com plaint with the county over the inci dent, he said. "I think the people there feel very badly," said Fisher. “They’re very upset that it happened, and rightly so. They should be. But I don’t think it reflects that animals at the shelter are treated badly in any way." Barrow tax delinquents 2007 Barrow delinquent taxes Barrow Taxes Due From 2007 Billing (Amounts over $10,000 including interest and fees) Name Town Location Amount Appalachee Place LLC Winder Haymon Estates Subdivision $13,800* Castle Homes Pointe South LLC Bethlehem Ponte South $32,672* Clack Construction LLC Bethlehem Multiple $13,951* Cooks Landing LLC Winder Multiple $16,136* Crown Park Homes Lawrenceville Ashebrooke $50,878* Custom Dream Homes LLC Dacula Ashebrooke $13,765* Douglas Harwell Winder Multiple $16,782* Kilcrease Partners LLC Auburn Kilcrease Rd. $11,642 Mark 1 Developers Inc Athens $38,360 McLintack Construction Corp. Winder/Beth. Multiple $16,293* Montana Land Development, Inc. Loganville Stonewilde $90,459* PanozAuto Development Hoschton Tower on parcel $28,730 Preston Properties Inc. Winder $14,900 Russell Towne Self-Storage LLC Winder Atl. Hwy. $13,540 Sims Crossing LLC Winder $14,565* Star Home Builders Inc Bethlehem Multiple $51,321* The Falls LLC Suwanee Falls Braselton $76,394* Towne & Country Homes LLC Lawrenceville Stratford Manor $10,965* Treemont LLC Buford Treemont $15,242* Vannoy Partners LLC Buford $42,392 *Denotes total of multiple tracts by owner. Total Amount owed = $1.6 million Builders, developers top list BY SUSAN NORMAN uilders and land devel opers left holding stag nant real estate during the economic downturn have become the biggest tax delin quents in Barrow County. In response to a request from the Barrow Journal, Tax Commissioner Melinda Williams released a list of all properties for which property tax bills are at least one year past due. There are 1,416 properties on the list totalling $1.6 million in taxes is due from 2007. Williams said her office is about to initiate legal action to sell every one of the properties to collect the taxes. With a few others dating back to 2004, the total number of proper ties facing tax sale is closer to 1,500. “I think this probably would be the largest number I have to start on at one time,” Williams said. Those with the most to lose include 20 property owners who together owe almost $600,000 just for 2007. Eighteen of those are involved in the real estate industry. The largest amount owed is $90,459 by Montana Land Development Inc. of Loganville, which does business as Damascus Homes. Williams said some of builders on the list had previously always paid on time. “It’s just since the economy has gone so bad; I think they’re all in the same boat,” she said. Property owners with bills at least one year past due soon will receive a “writ of fieri facias” that orders a levy on the belongings of a debtor to satisfy the debt, Williams said. continued on page 3A School’s handling of attack questioned BY SUSAN NORMAN Winder police are questioning how school officials handled a Jan. 7 assault of a Russell Middle School student. According to a police report of the incident, the 14-year-old student was in gym class when another student came up to him and asked him if he wanted to fight. Before he could answer the question, the other student hit him in the left side of his face. According to police reports, another student pushed him into the gym bathroom, where the victim was repeatedly hit “on the back of his head, the side of his head and also on his hands while he was trying to protect his head,” the report states. The victim said he yelled out that he didn't want to fight and that’s when his assailants stopped hitting him and left. The boy said he told a male coach and a female coach about the incident. The coaches told them they would “write up” one of the attackers and the female coach “told him to wash the blood out of his mouth.” When the student got home and told his mother what had hap pened, she took him to Barrow Regional Hospital, where police were called. Officer N. Bilik, who wrote the incident report, said he photo graphed “visible injuries located on (the victim’s) hand, left jaw and behind his right ear.” Capt. Lamar Reynolds, commander of the Criminal Investigation Division, said in an interview Tuesday that the police department’s school resource officer is following up on why the school personnel did not call police. “I do know Capt. (Dennis) Dorsey went to the school to talk about it,” said Reynolds. Dorsey is commander of the uniform patrol division and was out of the office Tuesday. “We had some concerns about it, about the way it was handled. On the surface, it appeared it was not handled right,” Reynolds said. Charges against one or more students are pending the outcome of the school resource officer's investigation, he said. Job Seekers EMPLOYMENT SOUGHT With a new Target scheduled to open in Barrow County in coming weeks, those seeking jobs turned out in large numbers last Friday. Officials said approximately 1,000 people on Friday showed up but some were turned away because of a lack of applications. Another 335 people applied Saturday with 355 online applications completed, officials said. Photo by Susan Treadwell BOC delays hours cut BY SUSAN NORMAN A cost-saving plan proposed by Barrow County Board of Commissioners Chairman Danny Yearwood was sidetracked Tuesday night after questions were raised about its impact on employ ees and on public’s safety. At its first meeting as a new board, the BOC voted unanimously to post pone action on reducing employee hours a total of 18 hours per month until after a called meeting sometime next week. The BOC did approve a resolution allowing the chair man to move county employ ees among departments on a day-to-day basis as the work- flow requires. But the board delayed votes on two possible plans - one by Yearwood to reduce hours and another by newly-elected District 3 Commissioner Steve Worley to instead reduce pay on a sliding scale. Yearwood's plan would reduce by half the projected budget shortfall of $2.5-$2.7 million. Worley’s plan would reduce it by a fourth. In three meetings last Wednesday, Yearwood told Barrow County employees and managers that he wanted to reduce their workweeks to 37.5 hours per week and to furlough them one day per month. The net effect on employees would be a 10-per cent reduction in pay. Yearwood acknowledged at the time that services, including those of the sheriff’s office, would be affected. Yearwood cautioned his colleagues Tuesday night that delaying action would only make the financial situation worse. But he appeared accept ing of the board’s unanimous vote to postpone action. SMITH SPEAKS Sheriff Jud Smith was the only person who addressed the issue during the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting. He said his employees are in life-and-death situ ations and that their safety would be jeopardized by furloughs that would force him to keep at home seven employees per day. “I understand we’ve got to do something, but I believe this would be putting citizens in jeopardy and putting my employees at risk of being injured, maimed or killed,” Smith said. continued on page 5A Airport Authority members booted BY SUSAN NORMAN The Barrow County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday night to boot the majority of the members of its controversial Airport Authority. Sent packing were at-large member Don Holliday, District 1 appointee Joel Mitchell, District 2 appointee Sammy Everett, and District 3 appointee Lee Barnett. Appointed to replace them were Frank Nocero, James Moore, Quinn Moore and Scott Miller. Only one appointee received any dissenting votes. Commissioners Isaiah Berry and Billy Parks voted against Nocero, the nominee of BOC Chairman Danny Yearwood. Reappointed to the authority were District 4 member Johnie Wendel, District 5 member Jerry Thompson and District 6 member Robert Cartmill. They were all nominated by BOC members who were not up for re-election last year. The new appointments were made with no comments from the commissioners and were not unexpected because of controversies over planned improvements to the airport. continued on page 5A SMITH