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16 Pages, 2 Sections A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County, Georgia $1.00 Copy Wednesday, June 21, 2023 Touch a truck event held in Auburn Credit: City of Auburn The Auburn Public Library hosted a Touch-A-Truck event last week, where Auburn Police Department, Barrow County Sheriff’s Department, Statham Police Department, Miles Trucking, Barrow County Emergency Services and Georgia Emergency Spill Response brought firetrucks, police cars, construction equipment, rescue vehicles and more for kids and families to learn about and explore. New sanitation ratespending in Winder amid service changes SERVICE CHANGE TIMELINE Week of June 19, 2023: New BLUE CART distribution begins, continuing through June 30. 2023. Week of June 26, 2023: Final collection of garbage and recycling using your old GREEN CARTS. Remember to leave empty GREEN CARTS at the curb for pickup. Week of June 26, 2023: Pickup and removal of GREEN CARTS begins, continuing through week of July 3, 2023. Week of July 3, 2023: First garbage collection using your new BLUE CARTS. Winder’s upcoming sanitation service change timeline Credit: City of Winder By Morgan Ervin As Winder prepares to transition to a new sani tation service provider on July 1, the monthly cus tomer rate remains in ques tion. Over the last ten years, garbage, recycling and bulk pick-up services have been provided to Winder’s cus tomers through a contract with Waste Management. In addition to weekly, routed, year-round garbage and recycling provided by Waste Management, the city’s current sanitation package offers weekly bulk and waste pick up (leaves and limbs) and street sweeping services for $29 per customer per month. With its 10-year contract with the city set to expire on June 30, representatives from Waste Management sent a letter informing the city that it would not re-ne- gotiate to serve the city af ter the service agreement ends. At the council retreat in early January, the council was presented with four responses to a request for proposals concerning san itation services. City staff said recycling costs ranged from $28-30 in addition to the base cost across all four bids it received. In March 2023, the city mailed 5,632 postcards with a recycling survey link to current sanitation customers. The online sur vey asked if customers would pay to support a subscription-based service to continue recycling. Over half of the 195 respondents said no, they would not pay an additional rate. As a re sult of the survey, recycling services were removed from consideration to keep monthly rates more afford able. Dining the city council’s April 4 voting session, the council approved entering into a professional services agreement with WastePro as the city’s new garbage and bulk services provid er and authorized the city administrator to negotiate final terms. In May, the council post poned the decision unan imously following Coun- cilwoman Kobi Kilgore’s request to have staff con sider a discounted rate for customers 65 and older. Most recently, during the council’s June 6 voting ses sion, Councilman Sonny Morris motioned to approve the FY24 budget to include setting the FY24 sanitation rate at $39.17, as recom mended by staff. Morris’s motion was seconded by Councilwoman Shannon Hammond, but it failed 4-2 with councilmembers Jim my Terrell, Stephanie Brit, Kobi Kilgore and Travis Singley opposed. For now, the customer sanitation rate will remain at $29 for garbage, bulk, leaf and limb pick-up and street sweeping. Meanwhile, the city’s See Winder, page 2A BOC DONATES TO BARROW COMMUNITY FOUNDATION’S PARK PROJECT AT CFIT '0 4879 14541 o The Barrow County Board of Commissioners presented Barrow Community Foundation (BCF) with a $500,000 donation to help fund BCF’s Building Our Future community park project underway at the Center for Innovative Teaching (CFIT) campus in Winder. Pictured with the board are campaign leaders Doug Mitchell (Mitchell & Crunk), Brad Akins (Akins Ford) and David Bleth (Harrison Poultry). Deputies negotiate with suicidal man holding pipe bomb at City Pond Park Deputies with the Winder Police Department and the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a suicidal man at City Pond Park on Wednesday just before 3 p.m. A security officer at La nier Tech told WPD that faculty was shown a note written by the suspect say ing he had “a black powder bomb” and was going to kill himself at City Pond Park. The note was given to his ex-girlfriend who had re cently ended their relation ship. The Winder Police De partment located the sus pect hiding in the woods at City Pond Park with an explosive device. The sus pect’s brother showed up at the scene and showed offi cers a video of a homemade “pipe bomb” and incendiary powder with the suspect demonstrating that he could light the powder on fire. With the assistance of the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office, police successfully built rapport with the sus pect. After about an hour of negotiations, the suspect peacefully surrendered. He was transported to North east Georgia Barrow to be evaluated by doctors in lieu of charges for terroristic threats and acts. The suspect’s vehicle was searched and no contraband was found. The University of Geor gia Police Bomb Unit lat er responded to the scene and assessed the explosive device. They determined it would be too dangerous to move, and decided to dispose of it where it was located. The method used to dispose of the device created a loud explosion, but no injuries were report ed. The WPD and BCSO said the public’s safety was never in jeopardy once offi cers arrived on the scene. Two subdivisions coming to Elder and Hardigree Roads By Morgan Ervin A request to rezone 34 acres from agricultural to low-density residential (Rl) for properties located at 537 Elder Road and 1467 Hardi gree Road was approved by the Barrow County Board of Commissioners during its meeting on June 13. The Elder Road property, known as the Ira Lewis Elder Estate, is 12.52 acres and will be developed into a minor subdivision consisting of four lots of single-family homes. The Hardigree Road prop erty, known as the Sam Har digree Estate, is 20.55 acres and will be developed into a major subdivision consisting of 27 lots. Each lot will have at least two parking spaces. The area is within the “rural reserve” character area of the county’s future land use map, which supports the proposed Rl zoning and is consistent with adjoining properties. The approved plan shows 3.95 acres of open space and a detention pond, an active play area and a basketball court. Conditions of the county’s approval include a 100-foot minimum setback on all lots with frontage along Elder Road, a required minimum of 2,000 square feet of floor area and architectural and landscaping requirements. OTHER BUSINESS In other business, the Board of Commissioners ap proved the following agenda items during its voting ses sion June 13: • A professional services agreement (PSA) with Mercer to begin the executive search for Barrow County Manager. The executive search will be gin in July 2023. The county will compensate Mercer for its services with a base fee of See BOC, page 2A BOG releases proposed FY24 budget The county’s total funds as proposed in fis cal year 2024 (FY24) is $155,868,057, up by over $32 million as compared to the FY23 original budget of $123,403,850. □ The county’s proposed fiscal year 2024 (FY24) general fund expenditure budget totals $58,110,833, which represents a 10.13% increase as compared to the FY23 original budget, and a 9.07% increase as com pared to the FY23 revised budget. Major drivers of the gen eral fund expense increase are general insurance lia bility, pay raises and capital improvements. General insurance liabil ity is estimated to increase by about 25% ($337,898) from $1,341,285 to $1,679,183, out of which $1,406,478 is in the general fund. Pay raises for employees will consist of a 3% cost of living adjustment (COLA) and a 3.7% increase for per formance to all employees except for the employees in the sheriff’s office, deten tion and constitutional of ficers and elected officials. Pay raises in the sheriff’s Office and detention center consist of a 4.7% COLA and a 2% merit increase. The proposed budget accounts for 19 new full time positions and one new See Budget, page 2A