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Barrow . Journal
www.BarrowJournal.com •r Read all over...
Wednesday, March 4,2009
Vol. 1 No. 19 20 PAGES 3 SECTIONS A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. WINDER, BARROW COUNTY GEORGIA 30680 250COPY
Set your clock ahead:
Daylight savings time
begins this weekend
— Inside —
Area news:
•Winder man collects
TV studio cameras
page 1C
•Another Cook of
Barrow County
page 1C
•Pinner steps down at
WIMO
page 2A
Opinions:
•Obama should not
support wiretapping
page 4A
•It was a bad week for
Georgians
page 4A
•Just wait 'till
December
page 5A
Sports:
• Diamond Doggs
defeat Eastside
page 1B
•AHS weight lifting
team set for area
page 1B
•WBHS boys tennis
begins season
page 3B
Also Inside:
•Classifieds
page 5C
•Church News
page4C
•Letters to the Editor
page 5A
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Obituaries
pages 4-5C
To subscribe,
call today:
770-867-NEWS
(6397).
The Barrow
Journal is
delivered
every
Thursday.
Pay raise approved in Bethlehem
BY CHRIS BRIDGES
The mayor and coun
cil members in Bethlehem
will see a pay raise begin
ning Jan. 1, 2010.
The council voted 4-1
Monday night to increase
the pay of the mayor to
$100 per meeting and to
$50 for council mem
bers. Currently, the mayor
receives $50 per meeting
with council members
earning $20.
The amounts had not
been increased in approxi
mately 10 years.
Council member Beth
Buchanan voted against
the increase. She had pre
viously said she had an
issue with the pay raises
because of the current eco
nomic times.
No citizens attended the
meeting which had been
displayed as a legal adver
tisement.
In other business at
Monday’s meeting, the
council:
•discussed the town elec
tions for 2009 in which
three council seats (posts
1, 3 and 5) will be up for
vote.
The seats will be for
four-year terms. Three
days for qualifying were
established from Sept. 2-4
at a cost of 3 percent of the
yearly salary for the posi
tion. City attorney Ron
Bennett established the
qualifying fee at $6.
Bethlehem officials approve
budget for new fiscal year
BY CHRIS BRIDGES
It’s official. The Town of Bethlehem’s budget for fiscal year
2009 is set.
Officials approved an operating expense of approximately
$300,000 during its March meeting Monday night.
The $288,900 budget for the new year is a slight increase from
$268,710 that was spent in 2008.
continued on page 3A
Snow falls and falls
From the capital
BARROW WONDERLAND
While the calendar continues to inch toward spring, Barrow County received
several inches of snow Sunday afternoon. The snow caused the closing of
several businesses Monday including the Barrow County School System.
John Dickinson (bottom photo) enjoyed the wintry weather by building a
snowman with family members. See more snow photos on page 8A.
Photos by Jessica Brown and Susan Mobley
No word on local
stimulus impact
BY CHRIS BRIDGES
While the national stimulus package has been the talk of the
nation in recent weeks, its impact for Barrow County is still being
pondered.
Rep. Terry England said Monday there is no “real word yet” on
the stimulus funds for Barrow.
“We are just starting to get information and hopefully we will
know more details by the end of the week,” Rep. England said.
“Everything is sketchy at this point.”
The representative said lawmakers are being very careful not to
commit to taking funds that will obligate the state to continuing pro
grams into the future that are created for the purpose of receiving
stimulus funds.
Rep. England said he also continues to hear from citizens about
the governor’s plans to eliminate school nurses in the 2010 budget.
”We are doing all we can to keep them in the budget and we rea
lize what they mean to everyone,” said Rep. England.
Winder utility revenues down
BY SUSAN NORMAN
Two-thirds of the way through
its 2009 fiscal year, the City of
Winder government has collect
ed just over half of the revenues
its budget anticipated from this
year’s water and gas sales.
City Finance Director Leslie
Ginn told the Winder City
Council during its work session
Tuesday night that revenues
should be at 66 percent of the
budget’s forecast, but collec
tions through February were at
only 59 percent.
Ginn said expenditures in the
utility services as of February
were running at 65 percent of
budget.
Ginn did not put dollar
amounts to those percentages
either in her presentation or in
her two-page printed report to
the council and the city’s fiscal
year 2009 budget is not posted
online.
City administrator Bob Beck
said the shortfall in utility
revenues is due to decreased
demand for water because of the
drought and decreased demand
for gas by a couple of commer
cial users.
continued on page 2A
Barrow faces fiscal crisis
Shortfall in revenue, new expenses slam budget
BY SUSAN NORMAN
Despite the recent cuts in local
county government salaries and the
state’s decision to fund homeowner
tax relief credits, Barrow County
still faces a massive budget deficit
this year and the possibility of an
even bigger budget crisis in 2010.
The county’s worsening financial
picture is the culmination of several
factors, including severely declin
ing revenues from the worsening
economy at a time when multiple
new government facilities are sched
uled to open and drive up costs for
government operations.
As Barrow’s newly elected chair
man and freshly seated board attempt
to size up the crisis, it is apparent
that no one knows yet where the bot
tom will be.
And unless a solution can be found
quickly, much of the $5 million in
cash reserves available at the begin
ning of this fiscal year could be
depleted.
SHORTFALL
$l-$2.7 MILLION
The most recent sign of this
impending budget shortfall came at
last week’s Barrow County Board
of Commissioners meeting when
chief financial officer Beth Horacek
gave an update
on the county’s
finances.
The bomb
was dropped
by a slide enti
tled “Budget
Shortfall" that
showed about
$1.5 million in
savings from the board's recent cuts
to salaries and operating expenses
and then stated in capital letters:
“NET SHORTFALL $2.7 TO $1
MILLION.”
Translation: The recent cuts to
close a $2.7 million budget gap may
be another $2.7 million short of
what’s needed to balance this year's
budget.
In addition, that new projected
shortfall doesn’t incorporate higher
insurance costs that weren’t bud
geted, or a possible increase in the
cost of retirement benefits, or the
additional expenses associated with
the April opening of the new three-
story Criminal Justice Center and
adjoining 392-bed jail.
District 3 Commissioner Steve
Worley said later that he didn’t say
anything during the BOC meeting
because he was surprised to see
a continuing
shortfall of up
to $2.7 mil
lion.
“When I
came into
office, we were
told we needed
to cut $2.5 to
$2.7 million,”
Worley said. “Now we're still being
told we will have a $l-$2.7 million
shortfall. OK, if we gained ground,
show me the ground. That $2.7 mil
lion should have come down in my
book. That’s the reason I didn’t have
a whole lot to say about the budget. I
want to see exactly where we are.”
At the end of Horacek's presen
tation, with no questions from the
board, the meeting ended.
But, it turns out, that was only the
beginning of the story.
A GATHERING
STORM
Barrow’s budget shortfall, like a
gathering storm cloud, is amorphous.
Each month, the problem looks big
ger - and more threatening.
The first public acknowledgement
of any county budget problem was
last November, when former chief
administrator Keith Lee and Horacek
told the previous BOC that the fiscal
year’s seven-week-old budget might
be out of balance by $1.96 million.
They blamed most of the projected
shortfall on Gov. Sonny Perdue's
proposal to withhold $1.25 million
for Homeowner Tax Relief Credits.
The rest of the imbalance - $710,000
- was in a shortfall of local revenue
streams, such as building permits
and landfill fees.
Lee recommended a few correc
tive actions, including taking away
employees’ holiday pay, but the BOC
in December handed off the problem
to the new board that would convene
in January.
In early January, during his first
week in office, new BOC chair
man Danny Yearwood convened
three large meetings with county
employees to talk about the need for
quick action to close the budget gap.
Horacek said then that the shortfall
had grown to a $2.5-2.7 million
amount.
A couple of weeks later, the BOC
cut employees’ salaries 3-10 percent,
took away holiday and overtime pay,
and told department heads to hold off
on equipment purchases and to trim
operating budgets by 10 percent.
continued on page 2A
WORLEY
YEARWOOD