Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

o 1 4 5 4 1 O 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.