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PAGE 2A BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2019 Winder council approves new depot building lease with chamber By Scott Thompson sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com Massive Chateau Elan area project gets approval Braselton leaders recently approved a con troversial and legally contentious rezoning for property across from Chateau Elan on Hwy. 211. At a special called meeting Dec. 18, the Bra selton Town Council unanimously approved the request from HECE, LLC, for a massive housing and commercial development on 230 acres around the Publix shopping center. The project was turned down by the coun cil in August. A subsequent lawsuit against the town remanded the case back to the council for another hearing. The council held that hearing Dec. 9 during its regular council meeting. During that meet ing, an attorney for the developer argued that the council should now go ahead and approve the rezoning with conditions that had been worked out between HECE and the city. One citizen who lives at Chateau Elan said that the project should have gone back before the town's planning commission for more pub lic input before the council took any final ac tion. An attorney for the developers of the Pub lix shopping center also opposed plans by the Georgia Department of Transportation for a traffic signal design at the site. The request was approved with 25 condi tions, which covered a number of details in cluding buffers, lot width, housing design and size requirements and traffic improvements. DDA continued from 1A The Barrow County Chamber of Commerce will likely contin ue to occupy the old train depot building on Porter Street for the foreseeable future. The Winder City Council, during a called meeting follow ing its Thursday, Dec. 19 work session, approved a new one-year lease agreement with the cham ber for 2020, and the agreement has four automatic one-year re newals beginning Jan. 1, 2021. Either party, however, can opt out at least 60 days prior to Jan. 1 each year. The chamber, which has occu pied the depot since the 1970s. will pay the city $2,750 per quar ter. or $11,000 per year, accord ing to the agreement. The chamber’s lease was a source of contention in 2017, when the council voted to termi nate the lease at the end of 2018 as some city leaders wanted to explore other options for the building, and chamber officials began a search for a new location. However, nothing has material ized to date. MORATORIUM Also during the called meeting, the council approved a moratori um on builders/developers sub mitting exterior wall finish mate rials, including vinyl siding, other than brick, stone, stucco (exclud ing EIFS) or cement board in res idential or commercial zones. The moratorium is in effect until 8 a.m. March 4 as the city works to finalize zoning ordi nance updates. The moratorium also covers any zoning request for an in compatible zoning use under the proposed new ordinance and any detached carport or storage build ings in the designated residential and commercial zones. OTHER BUSINESS In other business at the Dec. 19 work session, the council: •heard a presentation on the city’s Fiscal Year 2019 audit by Rushton and Company. The firm issued an unmodified opinion. It recommended more segregation of duties at the Chimneys Golf Course with regard to voided transactions but found “no mate rial noncompliance.” City finance director Leslie Wilder said the city had taken actions to address that issue that will reflect in the audit of the current fiscal year. •heard three proposed agree ments for service offered to the city through the Georgia Munic ipal Association. One deals with recovering money in the event that a “third party” party damag es city property. The company, Peachtree Recovery Services, would take 16.5 percent, and the city would get the rest. Wilder said. Another would train em ployees at each of the hotels and motels located inside the city to manage hotel-motel tax revenue at $900 per year, per hotel. That would be at a cost of $2,700 per year for the city for the three ho tels inside the city limits. The final one would be for restau rants to manage revenues from the 3-percent liquor-by-the-drink excise tax. That applies to 13 restaurants in the city at $300 per restaurant, per year. Wilder said. The hotel-motel tax and liquor tax agreements are designed to take some burden off the city’s finance department. The agree ments will be voted on at the council’s Jan. 7 meeting. •heard a presentation on planned and proposed capital projects at the Chimneys Golf Course for FY2020, including new public restrooms. •heard a request for mainte nance to the right-of-way on Bet ts Street. Lays Drive Project Corpora tion to hold title to the build ing. Authority leaders have said the project is a “safe” way to eventually have its own money coming in. Forum representatives told the board that even if the state exercised an option to termi nate the lease ahead of time, which has never happened, or if the company were to go un age in most states (16 with pa rental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in general ly good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements. BRING ONE FOR THE CHIPPER EVENT SET Keep Barrow Beautiful will host a "Bring One for the Chip- der, the DDA would not have any financial liability. “It’s almost a no-brainer for us,” then-DDA chairman Chris Maddox said at a meet ing in May. “We’re going to be a pass through for some financing. Someone else’s money is go ing to fund it. Someone else’s money is going to do the de velopment. If the worst-case per” event Saturday, Jan. 4. The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Barrow County Leisure Ser vices Complex, 80 Lee St., Winder, between fields 8-11. People are encouraged to bring their Christmas trees to be re cycled. AKA Tree Care is sponsor ing the event. For more information, con tact Danielle Austin at daus- tin@barrowga.org or 770-307- 3005. scenario happens, we might have a little egg on our face but we’ve got no financial re sponsibility.” OTHER BUSINESS In other business at the Dec. 19 board meeting, Maddox tendered his resignation as chairman and the board ap pointed Jason McDaniel as the new chair. WOMEN’S SHARE GROUP CAM Pregnancy Care Cen ter, 127 West Candler St., Winder, will host a confiden tial share group for women only at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 6. “Coffee Break Share Group is a great way for women to get together to share the laughter and hard times of their lives,” leaders state. The share group is held monthly. For more information, call 770-867-3000 or email cen- ter@campregnancycare.com. Briefs continued from 1A Schools continued from 1A Greene said, “I don’t know,” a lot recently when asked about the options for getting stu dents from one school to another or from school to home or vice versa. The district now has three times a day it takes students to Sims Acad emy, which is adjacent to the new high school. Students are delivered for each period, starting with the second. Could buses make those deliveries and run a route earlier from a school to the new school? “I don’t know, yet,” Considering buying or selling? 770-867-9026 www.maynardrealty.com Greene answered. The district also deliv ers kids daily to the Cen ter for Innovative Teach ing. That also is one of those “school-to-school” rides. Greene said a major factor for buses going to Sims Academy, CFIT and now BASA, is how the instructional time for students is affected. Greene said the trips to Sims take at least 15 minutes. That is half an hour of time that can not be used for teaching. Similar considerations are given to CFIT and, next year, to BASA. School Bus Logis tics is a consulting firm working with the task force. Greene said the “task was so big” a con sultant was needed to sort through the options. In addition, the con sulting company is fa- SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY Applications & Appeals We Do All The Hard Work! Hynes & Associates LLC Disability Advocates Call 706-969-7420 • SSIHeIp.org $ BBB Free Consultation. No Fee Unless Approved 4860 Atlanta Highway, Athens • 770-725-1977 Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. • Sat. 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. • Sun. 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. www.marystackfeedpet.com miliar with the district’s software — mapping bus routes is a complicated exercise. After the main routes in the morning and deliv ers to Sims and BASA, the district has to deal with special education trips, regular field trips and sports teams for away games. Greene said schools have been notified that their school governance teams should look at the question and their buses. He said others may be asked to comment on particular scenarios as the task force gets closer to February. He does not rule out asking other people to be on the task force. “I don’t know,” Greene said. The district also is training bus drivers, he said. One reason to study the question is to deter mine the number of bus es needed, which then tells Greene how many drivers are needed. The system has been short on bus drivers, which is nearly a contin ual problem, most of the year. If the ones being trained now make the grade, Greene said, the district will have just about enough — for now. LESLIE SPORNBERGER JONES, LLC ATTORN EY-AT- LAW Northeast Georgia's Strong, Strategic, and Skilled Defense. Criminal, DUI, Traffic, Commercial Drivers, and Professional Licensing. Trials and Appeals. 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