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Barrow N ews-Journal
Barrow County News Est. 1893 • Barrow Journal Est. 2008 Merged August 2016
20 Pages, 2 Sections, Plus Preprints A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County, Georgia $1.00 Copy Wednesday, June 14, 2023
BCSS student enrollment up 2.7%
Credit: BCSS
On the last day of school, there were 14,872 students enrolled in the Barrow County
School System. This represents a 2.7% increase over last year. In the 2022-2023 school
year, Winder Elementary (10.29% ), Auburn Elementary (8.24% ), Holsenbeck Elementa
ry (7.19% ) and Statham Elementary (6.89% ) experienced the most growth. A 42-student
increase was seen at Bear Creek Middle and a 14-student increase was seen at Russell
Middle. At Haymon-Morris and Westside middle schools, slight declines in enrollment
were reported. Barrow Arts and Sciences Academy grew by over 47% (274 students) while
Winder-Barrow’s enrollment declined by 6.87% (122 students). Apalachee also declined
by 0.66% (12 students)..
Credit: Ridgeline Land Planning
The community will consist of a mix of single-family attached townhomes (pictured) and
single-family detached homes with commercial frontage along Monroe Highway.
Large active adult mixed use
community coming to Winder
By Morgan Ervin
An active adult commu
nity is coming to Barrow
County after the Winder
City Council voted to an
nex and rezone a proper
ty owned by The Richard
Brevard Russell III Dynas
ty Trust and R&P Hold
ings, LR
The property spans 168
acres on Monroe Highway
and Millsaps Road. It is
currently zoned in three of
Barrow County’s zoning
districts including agricul
tural (AG), neighborhood
commercial (C-l) and
community commercial
(C-2).
The applicant, Ridge
line Land Planning, Inc.,
requested to annex and re
zone the property into the
City of Winder’s Planned
Unit Development zon
ing district to accommo
date the development of
a mixed-use community,
Courtyards of Winder.
The development will
consist of 432 units of sin
gle-family detached homes
and single-family attached
townhomes with commer
cial frontage created to
serve adults aged 55 and
over.
Of the 432 units, 231
are detached single-family
homes ranging from 50-60
See PUD, page 2A
Winder prepares for transition
to new trash service provider
Blue is the new green.
Credit: City of Winder
The City of Winder prepares to transition to new sanitation
service provider July 1, including distributing new carts to
all customers.
Beginning July 1, the
City of Winder will transi
tion to WastePro as its new
garbage and bulk pick-up
provider.
New services will in
clude weekly garbage pick
up and two bulky items per
household, along with leaf
and limb pick-up and street
sweeping.
Later this month, each
customer will receive a
new blue garbage cart to
replace the existing green
carts. A city news release
said staff is working to en
sure the transition will be
as smooth as possible.
Also, effective July 1,
recycling will no longer be
offered as part of the city’s
sanitation service package
due to soaring costs amid a
diminishing recycling mar
ket.
“A subscription-based re
cycling service added on to
the garbage and bulky items
pick-up would create an ad
ditional $25-$29 monthly
fee that would be passed
on to the customers,” said a
city press release.
The city mailed surveys
earlier this year asking cus
tomers to weigh in on the
issue, to which a vast ma
jority of respondents con
firmed they would opt out
if additional costs were as
sociated with the recycling
service.
Also new in Wind
er’s fiscal year 2024, the
public works department
will maintain weekly resi
dential leaf and limb pick
up services, which will
occur the same day as
garbage pick-up.
The public works de
partment will also clear
any remnants of garbage or
leaves and conduct street
sweeping operations the
day after garbage pick
up, which includes public
rights-of-way, streetscapes
and protecting drainage
pipes from potentially
harmful debris.
According to the city,
these changes will improve
reliability, efficiency and
enhance the city’s overall
cleanliness and environ
mental stewardship.
Harrison Poultry to become
County’s latest water customer
By Morgan Ervin
An intergovernmental
agreement between Bar-
row County and the Town
of Bethlehem for the pro
vision of water services
took effect June 5.
The agreement gives
MAILING LABEL
the county non-exclusive
authority to provide water
service within the munic
ipal boundaries of Beth
lehem, which includes
treatment and delivery of
potable water to retail wa
ter customers and all perti
nent billing and collection
for such services.
More specifically, the
agreement will allow the
county to provide water
service to Harrison Poul
try, which has historically
purchased water from the
City of Winder. However,
over recent years, Harri
son Poultry CEO David
Bleth has been unhappy
with the city’s water rates.
According to Bleth, out of
the 126 poultry plants na
tionwide, Harrison Poul
try was paying the highest
water rates with the City
of Winder.
According to Bleth,
about 13 years ago, Har
rison Poultry relied on the
city for 70% of its water
supply. It was around this
time that the company
complained to city leaders
about its “unacceptable
water rates,” but no agree
ment between the parties
was reached.
Bleth has since lessened
his reliability on Winder’s
water and has inched his
way toward water inde
pendence as he now uses
well water to supply 70%
of the water needed to op
erate Harrison Poultry and
purchases only 30% from
the city.
“We had no choice,” said
Bleth, who added that he’s
spent nearly $ 1 million on
water cleaning and reuse
equipment technology to
lower the amount of water
needed to run his business.
“That technology saves us
over 70,000,000 gallons
each year,” he said.
“We are a business and
there’s been an increase in
all operating costs. This is
being a good steward of
our business by identify
ing something that costs
much more than our in
dustry average and trying
to do something about it,”
he said.
School board sets tentative millage rate
Barrow County School System sets tentative
millage rate to 15.298.
On Thursday, June
8, the Barrow Coun
ty Board of Educa
tion announced its
intention to increase
the property taxes it
will levy this year by
2.98 percent over the
rollback millage rate.
The millage rate
tentatively set is
15.298, which is
down from last
year’s millage of
17.881.
Each year, the
board of tax asses
sors is required to
review the assessed
value for property
tax purposes of tax
able property in the
county. When the
trend of prices on
properties that have
recently sold in the
county indicate there
has been an increase
in the fair market
value of any specific
property, the board
of tax assessors is
required by law to
redetermine the val
ue of such property
and adjust the assess
ment.
This is called a re
assessment.
When the total
digest of taxable
property is prepared,
Georgia law requires
that a rollback mill-
age rate must be
computed that will
produce the same
revenue on the cur
rent year’s digest that
last year’s millage
rate would have pro
duced had no reas
sessments occurred.
The budget ten
tatively adopted by
the Barrow County
School System re
quires a millage rate
higher than the roll
back millage rate;
therefore, before
the Barrow County
School System may
finalize the tentative
budget and set a final
millage rate, Georgia
law requires three
public hearings to
be held to allow the
public an opportu
nity to express their
opinions on the in
crease.
All concerned cit
izens are invited to
the public hearings
on this tax increase to
be held at the Board
of Education offices,
located at 179 West
Athens St., Winder,
on June 22 at 10 a.m.
and 6 p.m. and on
June 29 at 1 p.m.
LEADERSHIP BARROW
CLASS OF 2023 GRADUATES
Credit: Barrow County Chamber of Commerce
The Barow County Chamber of Commerce Leadership Class of 2023 officially
graduated last week. The event was held at the Georgia Club and sponsored by Piedmont
Athens Regional.
Statham holds public
hearing for FY24 budget
By Carole Townsend
On Tuesday evening,
Statham residents had the op
portunity to weigh in on the
proposed city budget for the
upcoming fiscal year. CPA
Rachel Bembry with JAT
Consulting Services, Inc., pre
sented the budget document
to city leaders, following sev
eral meetings with department
heads, council members and
Mayor Joe Piper over the past
few months.
Bembry noted that, based
on the budget and the city’s
needs in the coming years,
the millage rate will increase
from 4.003 to 4.06, or an an
nual per-household increase
of $3.42 for a $150,000 house.
The new budget includes a
cleanup day and tree remov
al, bridge repair, maintenance
and improvement in Bridg
es Park, stage and presen
tation equipment and other
provisions.
NEW WORLD PUBLIC
SAFETY SOFTWARE
During the public hear
ing, a representative from the
Barrow County Sheriff’s Of
fice addressed the mayor and
council, explaining the advan
tages of the New World Public
Safety system, an application
that connects law enforcement
officer and personnel.
New World increases safe
ty, efficiency and accuracy of
response time, also allowing
officers from various jurisdic
tions to share information and
assist each other with infor
mation.
The New World contract
will be voted on during the
June 20 city council meet
ing and special-called budget
adoption meeting.
Funds earmarked for city
water projects
The new budget sets
aside about $270,000 for
water system improve
ments throughout the city;
specifically, the funds will be
used to replace aging water
pipes.