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BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2020
Auburn plans increase to
starting salary for police officers
Winder council approves 3-percent
pay increase for all city employees
By Scott Thompson
sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com
The City of Auburn plans to restruc
ture the pay scale within the police de
partment and bump the starting salary for
officers up by roughly $2,100 in an effort
to retain officers and also fill existing va
cancies.
During a Thursday. Dec. 17 work ses
sion, no one on the city council objected
to Chief Chris Hodge's recommendation
to boost the pay rates for all ranks from
sergeant and below and to increase the
starting officer salary in the department
from $42,999 to $45,184 to help the city
be more competitive to surrounding ju
risdictions. The council is expected to
approve the changes during its next vot
ing session, scheduled for Jan. 7.
In other recommended changes, the
department will eliminate one road of
fice position and one support services
position that has been vacant since July.
Those moves will contribute to saving
the city more than $53,000 and represent
a 5.8-percent drop in the department’s
salary and compensation budget from
$1.35 million to $1.3 million, Hodge
said. The city also will save money un
der another change proposed by Hodge,
where the city would be allowed to hire
qualified personnel who wouldn't have
to undergo Georgia Peace Officer Stan
dards and Training (POST) training.
Hodge said the department is down
three road positions, and that number has
been four lately due to an officer being
out while recovering from a knee inju
ry. The staffing levels reached a critical
point, the chief said, to where he had to
come off his desk and go out on road pa
trol.
“Certified officers are increasing
ly hard to come by, and (the changes
would) bring us to the levels to where
we can attract more qualified people, but
also retain officers." Hodge said. “We
have a really good group. It’s been tough
to achieve full staffing. It’s not because
people are unhappy; there are just bet
ter-paying jobs out there. This will put us
in a much better position.”
Hodge said since the support services
person resigned in July, he has restruc
tured the division to compensate for the
departure and believes it is functioning
well enough to where it isn’t necessary
to fill the vacancy. He said all education
and training incentives tied to employee
pay increases will be suspended until the
city reaches a point where they can be
reinstated without “causing a financial
burden.”
OTHER BUSINESS
Other items the council is expected to
approve at its Jan. 7 meeting include:
•an amendment to the city’s zoning
ordinance creating a new City Center
Planned Community District. The new
district runs along with the city-initiat
ed rezoning of 57 acres south of Atlanta
Highway, where the new municipal com
plex will be built and a city center and
residential uses will also be developed.
The council will also need to hold a pub
lic hearing and vote on the rezoning next
month and will have to also approve a
site plan for the development. The city’s
planning commission recommended ap
proval of the new district last week.
•the selection of Cabot’s Drive to be
resurfaced with Fiscal Year 2021 state
Local Maintenance and Improvement
Grant (LMIG) money from the Geor
gia Department of Transportation. The
city is projected to receive $80,791 in
LMIG money and is required to provide
a 30-percent match at $24,237. Cabot’s
Drive is a 29-year-old residential street
that has never been resurfaced and has
continuous “alligator cracks” and crum
bling asphalt. Iris Abridge, the city’s
public works director, said.
•increasing the weekend rental fees
at the Perry Rainey Center in order to
help pay employees who are called in to
clean up after and between events. Some
council members suggested implement
ing a policy where a deposit would be
charged and would be non-refundable
in parties leave damage or do not clean
up the facility themselves after they’ve
used it.
•setting the week of qualifying for the
Nov. 2. 2021 municipal election to be
Aug. 16-20. Councilmen Robert Vogel
III and Bill Ackworth are up for re-elec
tion, and the qualifying fee for each seat
will be $144. All council seats are at-
large and not relegated to any zone or
district within the city.
By Scott Thompson
sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com
All City of Winder employees will get a
3-percent pay raise starting in January as
city leaders looked to signal their support
for the staffers during a trying year.
During a called meeting Thursday,
Dec. 17. the city council unanimously
approved councilman Travis Singley’s
motion to implement the 3-percent raises
across the board and pay all employees a
$100 Christmas bonus.
“Each one of them has been essen
tial this year,” Singley said, adding that
the raise should help “boost their confi
dence.”
City administrator Mandi Cody said the
raises would be slotted as cost-of-living
adjustments rather than the merit-pay
increases the council had previously dis
cussed potentially implementing. The
raises are projected to cost a little more
than $124,500 to implement for the final
six months of Fiscal Year 2021. and the
bonus payments will come at a cost of
$17,440 to the city, Cody said.
When the council approved the FY2021
budget in June, it did so with a stipulation
that merit-pay increases would be consid-
Loeffler and Wamock were the top two vote-get
ters in the “jungle primary” special election, which
featured more than 20 candidates on the same ballot
in November.
A runoff election for the public service commis
sion seat between Republican incumbent Lauren
“Bubba” McDonald and Democratic challenger
Daniel Blackman is also on the ballot after the orig
inally-scheduled December runoff for that race was
postponed by a month to coincide with the Senate
elections.
According to county elections director Monica
Franklin, 6,268 people took advantage of the first
week in-person early voting last week in Barrow
County. The elections office had also received back
4,295 of the 7,417 absentee ballots that were re
quested as of Monday afternoon, Franklin said.
A little more than 38,000 people in Barrow voted
in the November general election, a turnout of 68.4
percent among registered voters.
In-person early voting was continuing this week
from 8 am. to 5 p.m at the county elections of-
ered halfway through the year, if financial
conditions warranted it, given the uncer
tainty of the coronavirus pandemic. But
despite the economic toll the pandemic
has taken, the city has held steady with
its revenues, realized savings on initial
employee health insurance costs and also
got a jolt with $934,000 in federal coro
navirus relief money through the CARES
Act, which was deposited into the city’s
general fund, leaving the city plenty of
room to implement raises.
While merit-pay raises would not have
guaranteed all employees a 3-percent
salary bump and the amount would have
been based on individual performance,
council members agreed they would rath
er hold off on those merit-pay evaluations
until the next budget year and instead
give everyone the 3-percent hike.
“Every employee deserves a 3-percent
pay raise, period,” councilman Chris
Akins said. “I think it’s the right thing to
do. I think it’s the way to go. This is a per
fect opportunity and perfect time to put
this out there.”
“It’s good for morale for them to see
that we believe in and care about them.”
councilwoman Kobi Kilgore added.
fice, 233 East Broad St, Winder. The office will be
closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as well
as New Year’s Day, and there is no weekend voting.
The final week of early voting will be Mon-
day-Thursday, Dec. 28-31, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
each day.
Voting on Jan. 5 will be from 7 am to 7 pm at
the county’s eight precinct locations. To find your
polling location, you can call the elections office
at 770-307-3110, go to the county website or go to
mvp.sos.gagov.
The county is accepting absentee ballot requests
through 4 pm Dec. 31, though the Post Office will
be closed on New Year’s Day.
Forms can be mailed to or turned in in-person at
the elections office, emailed to mfranklin@barrow-
ga.org or faxed to 770-307-1054.
Absentee ballots are due at the elections office by
7 p.m. Jan. 5.
All forms and additional information can be
found at http://barrowga.org/departments/elec-
tions-registration-main.aspx.
Voting
continLied from 1A
Statham continLied from 1A
“We want to see if we
can get something that is
approvable, that is the best
product and would be a suc
cessful project and a benefit,
not a detriment, (to the city's
citizens).”
In addition to poten
tial traffic issues, concerns
have been raised by council
members and residents over
the impact on the city’s in
frastructure and the Barrow
County School System's
two schools in the city
(Statham Elementary and
Bear Creek Middle). Resi
dent Andy Woods said at the
Dec. 3 public hearing that
the developer should aim for
larger homes on larger lots
for a “higher-quality” devel
opment with higher property
values.
The city staff's recom
mendation was that the de
velopment include no more
than 175 homes, with a mini
mum lot size of 7,500 square
feet, and that no more than
25 percent of the homes be
less than 1,650 square feet.
Councilman Dwight Mc-
Cormic cautioned that the
developer may not want to
“waste a whole bunch of
money” on a traffic study
if a main concern was the
density of the proposed de
velopment.
“A lot of (the property) is
unbuildable,” Porter replied.
“The rezone is being re
quested to allow for smaller
lots, not to cram a bunch of
extra houses in.”
WALTON
DEVELOPMENT
PROPERTY
In other action at its Dec.
15 meeting, the council ta
bled until next month a po
tential vote on what to do
with more than $300,000
in money for a proposed
mixed-use development at
State Route 316 and McCa
rty Road that was started in
2012 but has yet to come to
fruition.
The project — which has
been backed by a $300,000
federal grant that was ad
ministered through the At
lanta Regional Commission,
along with the city funding
and a match by Walton De
velopment — was intended
to be used for a water lift sta
tion. But Walton, the Cana
dian-based real estate firm,
is no longer seeking to devel
op the property and has put it
up for sale. Mayor Joe Piper
said Walton's principal play
ers in the initial project are
no longer involved with the
company, and the company
has switched from being a
developer to a “land flipper.”
Walton now typically fo
cuses on pre-development
of raw land by purchasing
undeveloped property in
high-growth areas, acquir
ing appropriate zoning, then
eventually selling the prop
erty to developers.
Walton has continued di
vesting itself of numerous
real estate holdings in the
Atlanta area this year, in
cluding a few in neighboring
Jackson County.
A plan by Walton to have
the City of Arcade annex
a large tract in south Jack-
son County near the Clarke
County line was thwarted in
2014 after a public outcry
over the idea. Walton want
ed to annex the land to get
a more favorable zoning for
higher density housing than
it could have gotten from the
county board of commis
sioners.
Walton was successful
in having Arcade annex the
large tract known as the old
4-W Farm into the town for
a massive master planned
community, but the property
remains undeveloped.
Councilman Gary Ven
able has said he would like
to see the $313,000 Statham
has on hand for the project
to be redirected for well de
velopment to help relieve
the city’s water dependen
cy on Barrow County and
the City of Winder. Venable
and councilwoman Tammy
Crawley said self-sufficien
cy should be the city’s ul
timate aim. Venable noted
that the city has spent hun
dreds of thousands of dollars
in recent years in water pur
chases.
“There's not much move
ment that I can tell (with the
project),” Venable said. “...
That's a lot of money going
to entities other than (the
City of Statham). The goal
here is to find a clean-water
solution that Statham owns
and operates. We don't have
a plan, as I understand it, to
fund that solution. But water
revenues are how we fund
CITY OF STATHAM, GEORGIA
FISCAL YEAR 2021 (FY21) AMENDED BUDGET REVIEW & ADOPTION
(JULY 1, 2020 - JUNE 30, 2021)
PUBLIC HEARING ON FY 21 AMENDED BUDGET: A Public Hearing to amend the FY 21
budget is scheduled for Thursday, January 7, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, located at 327
Jefferson Street, Statham, Georgia 30666. At this meeting, the Mayor and Council will receive
both written and oral comments about the annual amended budget for the City of Statham, Georgia.
BUDGET REVIEW: The Mayor and Council are scheduled to review the amended FY21 budget
on Thursday, January 7, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
BUDGET ADOPTION: The Mayor and Council of the City of Statham are scheduled to adopt
the amended FY21 budget at their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, January 19, 2021. The
meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall.
most of our budget. If our
infrastructure is crumbling,
how long is that sustainable?
That’s the issue for me.”
Jordan McDaniel, the
city’s public works director,
has recommended that the
project funds be left in place
for a lift station and that the
city look for other funding
to support a water research
project. The city can't apply
for grant monies to assist
with that until it is up to date
on its audits.
Piper said the city’s au
ditor should have a draft of
the 2018 audit to submit to
the council within the next
month and has started work
on the 2019 audit.
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business at the
Dec. 15 meeting, the coun
cil approved a memoran
dum of understanding with
Barrow County Emergen
cy Services to conduct fire
safety inspections within
the city. Piper said the city
canceled an MOU with the
Georgia State Fire Mar
shal's Office in 2012 and the
county has been performing
the services as a courtesy
since then.
Mike Buffington contrib
uted background reporting
on the Walton item.
Considering
((TM*R) )) buying or
selling?
770-867-9026
www.maynardrealty.com
VOTE
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ADVANCE VOTING
NOW THROUGH DEC. 31
8 A.M. - 5 P.M.
233 E. Broad St., Winder
For Absentee Ballots By Mail
Call 770-307-3110
U. S. SENATE
RUN-OFF ELECTION
TUESDAY
JANUARY 5
Paid for by the Barrow County Republican Party, Debbie Reid,
Chairman, Bob Lanham, Treasurer • www.barrowgop.org