Barrow journal. (Winder, Ga.) 2008-2016, March 18, 2009, Image 1

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Barrow journal., March 18, 2009, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextBarrow ... Journal www.BarrowJournal.com Or Read all over... Wednesday, March 18,2009 Vol. 1 No. 21 22 PAGES 3 SECTIONS A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. WINDER, BARROW COUNTY GEORGIA 30680 25c COPY •Spring begins to arrive in Barrow page 1C •Another Cook of Barrow County page 1C •Statham to bid on sewer tap installation page 2A •Barrow schools now accepting Pre-K signups page 3A Opinions: •Talent defies bound aries of youth page 4A •Barnes sounds more like a candidate page 4A •Living with Mr. Fix It page 5A Sports: •Annual WBHS Rotary Relays held in rain page 1B •WBHS, AHS baseball teams earn wins page 1B •JV Lady Wildcats remain undefeated page 2B Also Inside: •Classifieds page 7C •Church News page 5B •Letters to the Editor page 5A •Public Safety pages 6-8A •Obituaries pages 4-5C To subscribe, call today: 770-867-NEWS (6397). The Barrow Journal is delivered every Thursday. Free tax ride to end at airport BY SUSAN NORMAN The Barrow County Tax Assessor’s Office is pursu ing 2008 county taxes on planes parked at Northeast Georgia Regional Airport that should have been taxed in the past, but weren’t. Chief Tax Assessor Cecil Highfield said his office mailed certified letters on March 11 requesting tax returns from seven airplane owners. Among them is the Barrow County Airport Authority’s new chairman, Frank Nocera, who keeps two restored, ‘50s-era Cessnas in his privately-owned han gar at the airport. “The taxpayers were sent, by certified mail, a letter stating that it had come to the attention of this office that they may have had an aircraft that was taxable in Barrow County for the 2008 digest,” Highfield said in an e-mail to the Barrow Journal. “Along with this letter we sent a reporting form for (the) aircraft and asked for it to be complet ed and mailed back to our office.” Over the past month, assessors twice have gone to the county-owned air port to photograph planes in order to help establish their taxable values. They also have been examining the validity of owners’justifica tions for why their aircraft shouldn’t be taxed. Nocera said last week that he was the one who had raised the airport tax issue, that he had “paid all the bills I’ve received” and had filed his tax return and “put everything on it I was told to.” But other sources said the issue had first been raised last month by new Barrow County Board of Commissioners member Steve Worley, who inquired about airplane taxes. continued on page 2A CHAIRMAN’S PLANE One of Frank Nocera’s planes at the Barrow County Airport is shown. Nocera is the new Barrow County Airport Authority chairman. In Statham... No pay raise for city officials BY CHRIS BRIDGES There will be no pay increases for elected officials in the City of Statham. Saying it would not be right to increase the pay with city employees’ hours already cut, a vote was not even taken on the matter at Tuesday’s March council meeting. The mayor currently makes $1,000 per month in Statham with council members making $500 per month. Mayor Robert Bridges said action would have to be taken at this time in order for it to be effective for the next council. However, Bridges then said with the tough economic times at hand, it was not right to institute a pay raise for elected officials. “It is just a bad time to do this,” the mayor said. Auburn may approve new charter Thurs. BY CHRIS BRIDGES The City of Auburn could have an updated charter after Thursday night. City officials will hold a sec ond — and final — public hear ing on the updated charter prior to a work session at 7 p.m. The first hearing was held March 5. The council voted 3-1 at that meeting to approve the updated charter. Council member Sally Brown voted against the new charter due to a section which would allow the city to take on bonded debt without a vote of its citi zens. Language was put in the Auburn charter in 1997 that had limited the town’s ability to issue debt without first holding a public vote. Mayor Linda Blechinger contended at the meeting that such a restriction should never have been put in the charter and she was opposed to holding another referendum to address the matter. No citizens spoke against the proposed charter changes at last week’s council meeting. Previously, city attorney Jack Wilson said there is a need for revitalization in the down town area, a move the town’s new Downtown Development Authority could undertake by obtaining bonds to fund the downtown project. continued on page 2A Irish Celebration ANNUAL EVENT AT CHATEAU ELAN Chateau Elan held its annual St. Paddy’s Celebration on Saturday in the pavilion and neighboring Paddy’s Irish Pub, which was built in Ireland and reconstructed in Braselton in 1997. The annual event is one of Chateau Elan’s biggest events, drawing plenty of visitors to the winery and resort. Photo by Jessica Brown Heroin bust latest in string of local trafficking arrests BY SUSAN NORMAN Barrow County narcotics investigators last Friday night made their biggest heroin bust in more than a decade. They arrested a Snellville drug dealer a little before midnight in the parking lot of a Bethlehem business and recovered 8 grams of heroin. That was enough for up to 160 single doses with a street value of about $3,000, according to the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office. Evan Richard Newby, 27, of 3815 Mink Livsey Road, alleg edly sold heroin and prescrip tion hydrocodone to an under cover investigator. His was the 12th drug traf ficking arrest by the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office in the past six months. Officers from the Winder Police Department assisted in the arrest. Newby was charged with traf- Fire chief given week suspension County chairman takes action for fire chief not being ‘truthful’ BY SUSAN NORMAN Barrow County Board of Commissioners Chairman Danny Yearwood suspended Barrow County Fire Chief Robert Post Monday for one week without pay. Post was suspended for being “untruthful” and for not following Yearwood’s directives about overtime pay and the use of county vehicles. Post had reportedly requested a meeting with Yearwood to discuss rumors about the board of commissioners’ plans for the fire department. But when Post walked into the chairman’s office at 4 p.m. Monday, he found not only the chairman, but also Human Resources Director Norma Jean Brown. Yearwood told Post he was being suspended without pay for 40 hours. He was asked to surrender his badge, his county car, and until next Tuesday, his position. Assistant fire chief Mark Melvin is serving as act ing chief during the one-week suspension that ends Tuesday morning, Brown said. Yearwood said he suspended Post because “he was doing some things I asked him not to do.” continued on page 2A Yearwood’s 2008 taxes among those collected BY SUSAN NORMAN Barrow County Board of Commissioners Chairman Danny Yearwood has paid his overdue 2008 property taxes. With $159 in interest charged since the Dec. 15 due date, he paid $5,796, according to the county’s website. His payments on March 12-13 were among the $1.35 million in property taxes collected in the four weeks since Barrow County Tax Commissioner Melinda Williams issued tax-lien notices in February. The notices were sent to owners of 4,700 properties for which $6.8 million in taxes were past due. Taxes now have been paid on 800 of those properties. continued on page 2A Feds looking at funding completion of ILS work NEWBY ficking in heroin, possession of heroin with the intent to dis tribute, possession of morphine with the intent to distribute, sale of hydrocodone, and two counts of the sale of heroin. As of Tuesday morning, he was still in the Barrow County Detention Center on a $100,000 bond. continued on page 3A Barrow school system steps cautiously with new budget BY MIKE BUFFINGTON AND CHRIS BRIDGES Show us the money. That might well be the motto of the Barrow County School System as it awaits final action on fund ing by the Georgia General Assembly and the parameters of federal “stimulus” funds that are slated to be spent for education. “We haven’t seen a check yet,” superintendent Ron Saunders said last week of the federal funds. “Right now, we are await ing word on what we can and what we can’t do with it.” But the waiting game is — to use a football analogy — now in the fourth quarter. Teacher con tracts are due in mid-April and the system has to decide who it will, or won't, offer contracts to for the 2009-2010 school year. In addition, the system is under the gun to get its fiscal year budget finished and adopted as July 1, the start of the new year, looms. And all of that is awaiting the end of the legislative session, which is slated to adjourn some time in April, and the final rules and procedures on any federal funds. continued on page 3A BY SUSAN NORMAN The county may not have the money to complete the final phase of the controversial instrument land ing system project at Northeast Georgia Regional Airport, but the U.S. Congress just might. Airport Director Glen Boyd said he received a call from a Federal Aviation Administration official last week notifying him that the federal economic stimulus bill passed by Congress may have the fund ing needed to cover the project’s entire $894,00C shortfall. The additional money would be added to $528,00C in existing federal funds for the $1.4 million projecl to install a “medium-intensity approach light system with runway alignment indicator lights” known in the industry as MALSR. “These are lights that will enable planes to land in bad weather,” Boyd said. “It’s a very, very good thing and it’s wonderful. It will enhance the safety of the vast majority of approaches for runway 31, which we consider our primary runway.” If the funding comes through as hoped, the projecl could be completed by the end of this year.