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Barrow Journal
www.BarrowJournal.com •r Read all over...
Wednesday, July 29,2009
Vol. 1 No. 40 20 PAGES 3 SECTIONS A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. WINDER, BARROW COUNTY GEORGIA 30680 250COPY
•In the kitchen with
Jon Creeson
page 1C
•Funds given to estab
lish GED classes
2C
•New Barrow Journal
community columnist
debuts
page 3C
Opinions:
•Bank failure tough for
entire area
page 4 A
•Wilburn's message
has merit.. .. page 4A
•Water ruling will
affect all of Georgia
page 4A
Sports:
•Barracudas compete
at league championship
page 1B
•Mat Bulldoggs com
plete summer work
page 1B
•WBHS, AHS prepare
for start of practice
page 1B
Also Inside:
•Classifieds
page 5C
•Church News
page 3B
•Public Safety
pages 6A-7A
•Obituaries
pages 4-5B
To subscribe,
call today:
770-867-NEWS
(6397).
The Barrow
Journal is
delivered
every
Thursday.
Top administrator, CFO to be hired
BY SUSAN NORMAN
Chairman Danny Yearwood
on Tuesday night agreed to allow
the Barrow County Board of
Commissioners to begin looking for a
top administrator to help him run the
day-to-day operations of the county
government.
The position of “chief of opera
tions” has been vacant since Keith
Lee's resignation in early February,
but Yearwood has resisted board
members’ private inquiries about hir
ing anyone, saying it would be a
waste of money because he didn't
need the help.
The issue became public last week
after four commission
ers, led by Ben Hendrix,
asked for the issue to
be put on the board's
meeting agenda.
Hendrix said that
with the resignations of
the county’s top admin
istrators and the depar
ture of other managers,
that left no less than
10 vacancies in senior
staff positions.
“Let me say that
this is not about whether or not the
chairman is doing his job,” Hendrix
said, reading from prepared remarks.
“Anyone can see that
with all that has occurred
with the senior staff res
ignations, as well as the
downturn in the econo
my, that the chairman is
actually doing an extraor
dinary job.”
He said he doesn’t
want to hire anyone “to
circumvent his author
ity or to run the county
for him or this board,”
but he thinks Yearwood
needs assistance.
Other commissioners may have
been poised for a full public confron
tation, but Yearwood defused some
of the tension by quickly saying he
would accept some help. However,
exactly what that position and title
would be is not clear.
Yearwood did make it clear that
the new administrator would “assist”
him in running the county, not take
over. Saying he would like to set up a
committee to hire someone to whom
he could assign projects, Yearwood
added: “I don’t ever want anyone to
say that we’re an ‘administrative gov
ernment.' Our charter plainly states
Barrow County has a chairman and
he is the CEO of the county.”
continued on page 8A
YEARWOOD
Students set
to return
to classroom
A new school year is knocking
on the door for students in the
Barrow County School System
and school officials are looking
at a slight increase in enroll
ment.
School officials are expecting
approximately 12,547 students
to attend classes as the 2009-
10 school year begins Monday.
This number represents a three
percent increase from the previ
ous school year. At the close of
the 2008-09 school year, 12,186
students were enrolled.
Both high schools in Barrow —
Winder-Barrow and Apalachee
— will debut a JROTC pro
gram.
AHS and WBHS will also
have the clinical lab/biotechnol
ogy dual enrollment with Lanier
Tech.
WBHS principal A1 Darby and
AHS principal David McGee
both return for the upcoming
school year.
There will be two new princi
pals in the system. Marisa Grant
goes to Bethlehem Elementary
School from Auburn Elementary
School where she was assistant
principal. Previously, Grant also
taught at Statham Elementary
School.
Also, Chris McMichael replac
es the retiring Larry Johnson at
County Line Elementary School.
McMichael previously worked in
the Hall County School System.
Superintendent Ron Saunders
said Tuesday student achieve
ment and funding will be the
two primary focuses for school
system staff going into the new
school year.
continued on page 3A
Unemployment
rises above 11%
The June unemployment rate
in Barrow County shot up last
month, from 10.6 percent in May
to 11.3 percent in June.
According to the Georgia
Department of Labor, 3,783 B arrow
Countians are unemployed.
Barrow’s unemployment rate is
up significantly since June 2008
when it was at 6.3 percent with
2,165 people unemployed.
June 2009
Unemployment Rates
State Rate
10.5%
Barrow
11.3%
Jackson
11.2%
Walton
10.8%
Gwinnett
9.6%
Hall
9.6%
Clarke
7.7%
Oconee
6.6%
The Lazy Daze...
COLORFUL TREAT
Justin Beatty, 3, seems to be enjoying his
cool, summer treat during Saturday’s Lazy
Daze Festival in Winder. The event began late
Saturday afternoon and continued until dark
with fireworks. See more photos on page
1C. Photo by Jessica Brown
Tuesday night:
Wilburn rips into
previous commission
BY SUSAN NORMAN
Saying Barrow County residents seem more interested
in a government that “looks good” than a government
that operates well, Commissioner Larry Joe Wilburn on
Tuesday said while the current board doesn’t always look
good, it had inherited a litany of problems due to the mis
management of the previous board of commissioners.
“I've been on the job seven months.” he said during
the public comment portion of the board’s meeting. “I’ve
learned a lot about Barrow County — some of it I like,
some of it I don't. I have found out that in the long run, a
lot of people want a government that looks good — they
don't care whether it’s a good government or not. So
maybe sometimes we don’t look good, and we apologize
for that.”
Wilburn was apparently referring to the controversy
surrounding the BOC as it has had to make a number of
cutbacks this year due to the economic downturn. That
controversy has at times been scathing on blog sites, much
of it aimed at BOC Chairman Danny Yearwood's leader
ship style.
But in his comments Tuesday night. Wilburn focused
on several specific problems the current board has had to
deal with that he blamed on bad decisions by the previous
BOC:
•From 2006-2008. there was a “shortage of $142,388”
in the Fleet Maintenance Department. “Now was that slop
ping bookkeeping?” Wilburn asked. “I don’t know. Do you
know how we corrected it? We just adjusted the inventory
to make it right.”
•The previous board approved the expenditure of $1.5
million for a new animal control center that was not listed
as a priority in the 2005 bond issue. “We were advised the
money wasn’t transferred properly,” Wilburn said. “So we
had to do a resolution to transfer it properly.” He said that
$1.5 million has to be put back in the bond account by
2012; though $500,000 has been put back, another $1 mil
lion has not. If there isn't another $1 million in bond funds
remaining after the completion of the priority projects, the
board will have to replace that $1 million from operating
funds.
•The money allocated for the new animal shelter wasn’t
enough to furnish it or to pave the driveway and parking
lot. As a result, the building is complete, but has not been
occupied.
continued on page 3A
Budget gap smaller,
but still significant
County faces S3.5 to $4.8 million
in cuts or possible 2-3 mill tax hike
BY SUSAN NORMAN
First the good news: Barrow County’s tax digest may not
drop as much as some officials have feared, perhaps giving
the county $2 million more than it had been anticipating.
Now the bad news: That would still leave the county sev
eral million dollars — $3.5 to $4.8 million — short, forcing
additional and steep spending cuts, or hiking the county’s
millage rate 2-3 mills more to make up the difference.
In the next two weeks, county officials will complete work
on a proposed county budget to be presented to the board of
commissioners on Aug. 11. After that, the difficult choices
will have to made before the FY2010 budget is adopted in
September and implemented in October.
This week, however, the county did get the good news
about the projected drop in the tax digest being less than
feared. Although still a terrible situation — it’s apparently
the first time the county’s tax digest had fallen since the
Great Depression — it wasn't the 20 percent drop that some
feared. The county had been working on that assumption
since last spring.
But Chief Appraiser Cecil Highfield said last week that
the decrease is likely to be more in the 7-10 percent range.
That lower range is close to a five to eight percent projection
acquired by the Barrow Journal through an unofficial survey
of several property owners.
The tax assessor’s office mailed out 29,000 reassessment
notices two weeks ago and as of 1 p.m. Monday, the values
of only 43 properties had been appealed, said Highfield.
That means the vast majority of owners are OK with the new
assessments, most of which reduced values.
The improved outlook for the tax digest could mean the
county's General Fund in FY2010 would have $32.3 million
for operations rather than $29.8 million.
It also could cut the projected funding gap in the new
budget to $3.5 million, rather than $5.9 million previously
projected.
However, the county still has additional spending requests
to consider. Sheriff Jud Smith added about $1.3 million to his
sheriff's office and jail budget requests in a meeting with the
budget committee Monday evening. If those are approved,
the deficit gap would go to about $4.8 million.
Most of the sheriff's extra funding request is for five-
percent raises for all of his employees and for 18 additional
personnel, (see related story)
continued on page 8A
Yearwood looking to
close new county jail?
BY SUSAN NORMAN
Are Barrow County leaders considering farming out pris
oners to other counties in a bid to cut costs associated with
the recent opening of the new county jail?
The Barrow Journal has confirmed that BOC chairman
Danny Yearwood has inquired with Oconee County about
possibly housing Barrow inmates.
Oconee BOC chairman Melvin Davis said late Tuesday
afternoon that Yearwood approached him at a recent meeting
they both attended.
“Commission Chairman Yearwood and I have just briefly
discussed the possibility,” Davis said. “He asked the ques
tion to me, what would be the cost and what space we had. I
relayed that to our sheriff and called Mr. Yearwood back and
indicated to him that I asked the sheriff what kind of space
we had and the cost. But there has been no discussion, no
decision, no proposal, anything that has taken place that I'm
aware of. It’s just the preliminary discussion.”
Davis said he told Yearwood that Oconee County’s new jail
could probably accommodate 60-65 Barrow County prison
ers at a cost per day of $30.
Yearwood has also been making inquiries with Walton
County about how their sheriff's department is set up.
continued on page 3A
