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4A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, August 22,2018
County concludes hearings on budget
"The way they had it set up, the way it's in the enabling legislation, he
could do it the way he did it, but it made it difficult for y'all as commis
sioners in my opinion because you only got the watered down version
of what was asked for. This way you can make an educated judge
ment on how you want to vote when it comes time to vote."
ByAllie Dean
adean@dawsonnews.com
County budget hearings
wrapped up last week with the
final departments presenting
budget requests for the 2019 fis
cal year, which starts Jan. 1.
Over the past two weeks,
department heads have presented
around $26.8 million in general
fund requests, with $2.4 million
additional in personnel requests
and $7.8 million additional in
capital requests.
The board of commissioners
set a millage rate last week that
will result in a $1.3 million
increase in property tax collec
tions over last year ($11.5 mil
lion total), and combined with a
$1 million increase in LOST rev
enue ($7.6 million total), as well
as other taxes and income, the
board will have an estimated
$26.2 million in total revenue to
use along with fund balance
money to cover costs.
Commissioners will have to
whittle down the requests so that
they retain between 15 and 20
percent of fund balance.
Several capital requests can be
funded through current and
future SPLOST as well as
through grants, the current capi
tal fund balance left over from
last year, money in the vehicle
replacement fund and other
sources. Some of the requests
will also need to be bid out or
will come in under the estimated
costs.
“Usually in the budget process
you will see a
quote, regard
less of where
they got it from,
and they don’t
usually wind up
being that same
number,”
Commission
Chairman Billy
Thurmond said
August 16. “Having done bud
gets for 30 years, you want a
quote that ends up being higher
than what it winds up costing
you.”
The board is also not likely to
approve all 42 of the new posi
tions and $50,000 in salary
increases requested by depart
ment heads, especially as the
board has refused in the past to
give any one department or per
son for a raise outside of the two
percent across-the-board raise
the board has approved the past
two years.
Presenting on August 15 was
Billy Thurmond
Commission Chairman
the senior center, planning and
development and fire and EMS.
Senior Center Director Dawn
Pruett asked for a $4,268
increase over her 2018 budget.
Much of Pruett’s work and
programs are grant-funded,
including transit, food and some
salaries.
Pruett requested a new full
time respite care position for
when the Pauline Ivey senior
center is built.
She said that person would
also serve roles as custodian and
conduct maintenance and Meals
on Wheels delivery, and the sala
ry would be partially funded by a
Legacy Link grant.
“We haven’t had any new
positions since 2008,” Pruett
said.
Pruett said she is excited to
implement a respite care and
dementia program in the new
building. She said the center has
been dealing with dementia and
Alzheimer’s in long standing cli
ents, and that at least three or
four days a week, the person in
this new position would sit with
the clients to give caretakers a
break.
“I just think that we owe it to
our seniors in the community if
we can keep them there, around
their friends that they’ve been
going to, until it gets out of
hand,” she said.
Pruett also asked for $10,000
to replace old HVAC units and
$30,000 for a new vehicle.
hollowing Pruett, Planning and
Development Director Jason
Streetman asked for a part time
building inspector, a part time
front desk clerk and a new role
of co-compliance alcohol license
administrator.
The administrator position
would be to fill the void left
when Robbie Irvin, who worked
for the county for 19 years serv
ing most recently as storm water
and plans review manager,
resigned to work for the city of
Dawsonville as planning director
there. County Manager David
Headley transferred the vacant
position to the public works
department, and Streetman asked
for that position back in his
department.
“The problem is they’ve got
100 percent of the position and
only about 35 percent of the
work,” Streetman said. “The
remaining 65 percent of what
(Irvin) did, the plans review, the
plans coordination, the zoning
stipulation follow up, sign per
mits, alcohol licenses and per
mits, code enforcement assis
tance, animal control assistance,
all of those things that he did to
help out, that’s still some of the
responsibilities of our depart
ment.”
Where the soil erosion duties
were in the old position, the
revamped position would take on
alcohol licensing responsibilities.
The part time front desk clerk
would help cover lunchtimes,
which Streetman said are the
busiest time of day as far as
walk-ins.
“You have a lot of hard work
ing employees, I think many of
them feel like they’re putting a
burden on their coworkers when
they leave to go to lunch and
there is four people in line to be
helped,” Streetman said.
He also asked for two vehicles
in the marshals’ office and three
vehicles for planning and devel
opment, as well as for funds to
move the department’s computer
systems to a cloud-based system.
Emergency Services Director
Danny Thompson asked for six
new firefighter/EMTs, three new
firefighter/paramedics and a
training captain, all full time
positions, totaling nearly
$600,000. He also asked for
$30,500 for professional services
for annual physicals for his
employees to be preventative
against deaths due to cancer and
heart attacks.
Lire fighters in America are
250 percent more likely to devel
op cancer, and 70 percent of fire
fighters will develop cancer,
Thompson said.
Additional funding requests
include moving computer sys
tems to a cloud-based version,
retrofitting stations 1 and 2 to be
more energy efficient and pro
viding for maintenance on the
bum building, which allows for
on-site training of firefighters.
He also asked for several
tracks, including a ladder truck, a
fast attack engine, a new fire
engine, new ambulance and
vehicles for his staff, along with
the planned land purchase for
fire station 9 and the engine that
will need to be funded to go with
it. Many of his requests can be
funded through SPLOST.
Presenting on August 16 was
fleet, No One Alone, the
Department of Pamily and
Children Services, the humane
society, CASA and the district
attorney.
Shannon Harben, fleet mainte
nance director, said his number
one request was a full time
administrative assistant. He
asked to have Kara Wilkins, who
is currently a receptionist in the
county administrative office,
moved out to the fleet facility.
The county is also in the pro
cess of building a new fleet
maintenance building, where
Wilkins could have an even larg
er role including inventory man
agement.
“There’s so much more she
could do if she were out there
with us, but we’re out on Hwy.
53 and she’s in the (courthouse),”
Harben said.
No One Alone, or NOA, a
domestic violence shelter serving
Dawson and Lumpkin counties,
asked for a $2,500 increase due
to an increase in demand for ser
vices. DECS asked for the same
amount of money as last year,
while the humane society asked
for $8,000 to increase the pay for
employees at the shelter, who
currently earn between $8.75 and
$12 an hour.
The Hall and Dawson County
CASA, which stands for Court
Appointed Special Advocate
Program, asked for a $4,000
increase. The nonprofit organiza
tion provides legal advocacy for
juveniles in the court system, and
has a wait list currently due to
lack of volunteers.
The extra funds would help the
organization to advertise and
increase recruitment of Dawson
County-specific volunteers.
The last to present, District
Attorney Lee Darragh asked for
a $74 increase from what his
department was allocated last
year, as well as $24,000 in salary
increases and a capital request
for one vehicle at $30,000.
The final presentations last
Wednesday and Thursday
wrapped up a long process for
the board, but were a process that
Thurmond said was necessary to
maintain transparency in how
taxpayer money is used.
“It makes it less difficult to try
to explain...people have a hard
time understanding sometimes.
This gives them that fair oppor
tunity to hear and see what peo
ple are asking for,” Thurmond
said to the board after the final
hearing. “When I go out and rep
resent you...and I say we had a
$2.4 million personnel request,
they’ve seen that, you’ve seen
that.”
Lormer Chairman Mike Berg
used to meet with the department
heads and finance department
without the rest of the commis
sioners and then present his bud
get to the board during a regular
meeting.
“I always used to say this to
the former chairman. The way
they had it set up, the way it’s in
the enabling legislation, he could
do it the way he did it, but it
made it difficult for y’all as com
missioners in my opinion
because you only got the watered
down version of what was asked
for,” Thurmond said. “This way
you can make an educated
judgement on how you want to
vote when it comes time to vote.”
Tim Satterfield, who is slated
to take over the District 3 seat in
January, also spoke after the final
hearing and said he wanted to
commend the chairman and the
board for their transparency.
“I wish more folks was here,”
he said. “It’s good to put every
thing out to show the money
that’s coming in and the money
coming out. I just commend the
department heads overall, there’s
a lot of cuts and they’re trying to
watch the money, but it’s caught
up with us.”
Thurmond
Board of Education votes to maintain millage rate
By Jessica Brown
jbrown@dawsonnews.com
The Dawson County
Board of Education voted
to maintain the current
millage rate at 15.778 mills
during its third and final
hearing Monday night.
After considering a
slight rollback in the mill-
age rate to 15.500 mills at
the second hearing Aug.
13, the board decided to
maintain the current mill-
age due to the rapid growth
the school system has seen.
As of the first day of
school Aug. 2, the school
system saw a five percent
growth in enrollment.
During Monday night’s
hearing, Superintendent
Damon Gibbs said enroll
ment numbers are now up
by 6.25 percent with
approximately 200 new
students. Maintaining a
millage rate of 15.778
mills would allow the
board to collect in anticipa
tion of the rapid growth.
The 15.778 millage rate
will collect $21.3 million
in local revenue for the
school system, an increase
of $518,000 from the
board’s initial projection of
a 10 percent increase in the
tax digest.
The ending fund balance
for the school system will
be approximately $5.2 mil
lion, or roughly 12 percent
of the operating costs,
which is within the range
the board would like to be,
Gibbs said at the Aug. 7
hearing.
Based on the 12.69 per
cent increase in the tax
digest, a 2.69 percent
increase above the board’s
initial projection, board
member Will Wade had
asked the board to consider
a small rollback.
“I don’t think we should
collect more than we need
and when we have an
opportunity to give a little
back especially when
we’re in an economy
where tax values have
gone up we just need to
consider it,” Wade said
Aug. 7.
Linancial Director Jamie
Ulrich took Wade’s com
ments into consideration at
the Aug. 13 hearing and
amended the millage rate
presentation to include the
numbers for a 15.500 mill-
age rate, which amounted
to a $375,861 loss in local
revenue.
Brooke Anderson, gen
eral manager of the
Etowah Water and Sewer
Authority, was the only cit
izen to speak at the second
hearing and urged the
board to leave the current
millage rate, citing
Dawson County’s rapid
growth as an important
factor.
“Your current growth is
five percent. I can tell you
the homes being built in
this community are
exploding. You’re not
going to end with five per
cent. You’re going to end
with something higher,”
Anderson said at the hear
ing. “If you come up short
the kids are going to lose,
not you.”
The board voted 3-1 to
approve the millage rate of
15.778 mills, which has
been the millage rate since
2016. Wade was opposed.
Chairman Karen
Armstrong was not present
for the vote.
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