Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

20 Pages, 2 Sections, Plus Preprints A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County, Georgia $1.00 Copy Wednesday, January 8, 2020 Statham council eliminates city administrator position By Ron Bridgeman ron@mainstreetnews.com The Statham City Council unanimously eliminated the position of city administra tor and hired a new police chief at a called meeting Friday night, Jan. 3. The council met with two new members, including a new mayor, who recommend ed both actions. The council held about a 20-minute closed session before the actions. The council also elected Dwight McCor- mic the vice-mayor on a 3-2 vote. That vote was done by secret ballot. According to the state’s open meetings law, that was an illegal vote. Secret ballots are not allowed under that law. MainStreet Newspapers registered a complaint with Mayor Joe Piper and copied new council members. McCormic and city attorney Thomas Mitchell and asked that the vote be re-done publicly. Joe Piper, the new mayor who took the oath of office Thursday morning, Jan. 2, recommended the elimination of the ad ministrator position and Ira Underwood, a sergeant for the Auburn Police Department, as the new police chief. Mai Chang, who was the city administra tor. was not at the meeting. She was named administrator in early 2019 by former May or Robert Bridges after Michelle Irizarry, who had been the administrator for about a year, took another job. Chang was the Statham city clerk for about two years prior to being named administrator. Allan Johnston had been the Statham po lice chief. He resigned that position in December and Officer John Wood, who was the as sistant, turned down the head position af ter the council rejected a proposal to give him a year's contract and guarantee him six months’ salary if he were fired from the job without cause. The council also agreed to take bids on converting the current city hall to admin istrative offices and the police department so that the Statham Public Library can be expanded. The library has a grant for ex pansion and is supposed to start that work April 1. Piper said the city had one bid from “the previous administration.’’ The bid was from Tarpley Construction. The council agreed to take bids after Pip er said the city only had the one bid and several people in the audience questioned the process. Mike Holcomb, who said he has been a home builder and renovated numerous proj ects, including the Statham police depart ment, said the work would only take a few days and could be done much more cheaply. See Statham, page 2A Barrow Briefs ANNUAL MLK CELEBRATION SET The Barrow County Mar tin Luther King Jr. Day Committee will host its annual MLK celebration Sunday and Monday, Jan. 19-20. The MLK Gospel Con cert will be held at 6 p.m. Jan. 19 at White Oak Spring Missionary Baptist Church, 123 East New St., Winder. Church choirs and various singing groups will per form. All MLK community choir members are asked to contact Cathy Simmons at 678-963-8243 for choir rehearsal schedule. Each church choir will be asked to perform two selections. The annual march through Winder will be held at 10:45 a.m. Jan. 20. The march will begin at Quality Foods on Broad Street and take about 40 minutes to complete, ending at White Oak Spring Baptist Church. All of those needing trans portation to the beginning point of the march are asked to meet in the parking lot of the church no later than 10 a.m. The annual MLK cer emony will be held at 11:50 a.m. in the church sanctuary and is scheduled to last about two hours. The keynote speaker will be Tommie Smith, a 1968 Olympic gold medalist in track and field and a pro moter of human rights around the world. See Briefs, page 2A Index: Public Safety 5A Opinion 4A Classifieds 7A Legals 8-11A Obituaries 4-5B Sports 1-3, 6B Othercolumns 6A MAILING LABEL New leaders sworn in Photos by Scott Thompson WINDER CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS, MAYOR SWORN IN The new-look Winder City Council held its first meeting together Monday, Jan. 6. Prior to the council work session, from top left, clockwise, new council members Holly Sheats and Kobi Kilgore were sworn in while Ward 4 councilman Travis Singley and Mayor David Maynard were sworn in for the start of their third term. Sheats was elected in November to the at-large seat previously held by Michael Healan, who chose not to seek re-election, while Kilgore defeated incumbent A1 Brown for the Ward 2 seat. The officials were sworn in by city attorney John Stell. Photos by Ron Bridgeman NEW STATHAM MAYOR, COUNCIL MEMBERS SEATED Joe Piper, top left, takes the oath of office Jan. 2 as the new Statham mayor as city attorney Thomas Mitchell administers the oath. New council member Gary Venable, top right, was also sworn in after being elected to the council in November without opposition. He replaces former council member Per ry Barton. Hattie Thrasher, bottom right, won another term on the council without opposition and was also sworn in Jan. 2. Council member Tammy Crawley, bottom left, took her oath in office in December after winning a special election to replace Eddie Jackson, who resigned his seat to run for mayor. Barrow teachers may get more local money By Ron Bridgeman ron@mainstreetnews.com Classroom teachers in Bar- row County may get $1,000 on the local supplement for the fis cal year 2021. The Barrow County Board of Education got a proposal Tues day, Jan. 7, to increase the local supplement. It would cost the school sys tem about $1.3 million for the $1,000 per teacher. If it is ap proved, the added supplement would be in the budget that starts July 1. Superintendent Chris McMi- chael said the local supplement has not been changed since the FY2015 budget. Jennifer Houston, assistant superintendent for business services, warned the board that if the millage rate were to drop below the current 18.5 mills, the supplement probably would not be possible. No one objected to leaving the millage rate at 18.5 mills. Cindy Beggs, assistant super intendent for planning and per sonnel, said the proposal is for 995 teachers. It does not include other certified personnel such as counselors, media specialists or administrators. Beggs said after the meeting the other certified people have different supple ment schedules. Beggs also presented the board with two other propos als: a $1,500 supplement and a $2,000 one. Those would cost, respectively, $1.9 million and $2.5 million. Board members were uni formly supportive of the in creases. Board member Rickey Bai ley termed it “long overdue.” RENOVATIONS Recommendations for costs of renovations at Apalachee High School and Westside Mid dle School were made at $5 mil lion for AHS and $1 million for Westside. Joe Pemo, assistant superinten dent for system operations, said the AHS work would be done over two summers, 2020 and 2021. He said most of the work is on See BOE, page 3A '0 4879 14541 o Winder council wants more details on cost of golf course restrooms By Scott Thompson sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com The Winder City Council is gen erally supportive of building new public restrooms at the city-owned Chimneys golf course but was not comfortable with the price pro posed at its work session Monday, Jan. 6. City staff recommended the council approve an amount “not to exceed” $50,000 in funding for the restroom facility, which would have running water and a septic system, but several council mem bers balked at that price. “I don’t think $50,000 would be required to build them, in my mind,” said councilman Sonny Morris, who has spoken in favor of the public restrooms, which he said are needed at the course. Mor ris made the motion to table the item until more information could be obtained, and it was removed from the agenda for the council’s voting session on Tuesday, Jan. 7. City administrator Donald Toms said staff had looked at the cost of a concrete slab as well as the cost of running a water and septic line, while leaving some room for the actual construction. But he said actual price quotes for the whole project had not been obtained. Councilman Chris Akins said those quotes and other details were needed in order for the council to make “an intelligent decision.” “(The restrooms are) an accom modation we ought to provide,” Akins said. See Winder, page 2A