About Barrow journal. (Winder, Ga.) 2008-2016 | View Entire Issue (July 29, 2009)
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
