About Fayette County news. (Fayetteville, GA) 2009-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 2023)
| PTC Hosts 31 st AnnualYouth Triathlon, Bl Sen. Seay Donates Photos to The King Center, A3 Fayetteville Holds One Last Summer Celebration, B6 THE TRUTH SINCE 1886 FAYETTE COUNTY (1) NEWS f ay ett e-news, net Vol. 151, No. 30 Wednesday, July 26, 2023 $1. Council Approves FY24 Fayetteville Budget, Strategic Plan Mixed-Use Development Debated Luke Haney Editor lhaney@upsonbeacon.com Following approval of the 2023 Strategic Plan, Fayetteville City Council unanimously approved the proposed $40.9 million FY24 budget, $2.9 million less than FY23. Finance and Admin istrative Director Mike Bush presented the budget, high lighting various overall changes. A detailed breakdown of the budget was printed in the July 12 edition of Fay ette County News and budget documents are avail able online at Fayetteville- ga.gov and at Fayetteville City Hall. Following, council unan imously approved an amendment to water and sewer rates for FY24, a five percent annual increase which staff noted is needed to meet debt service needs associated with the recently built waste-water treatment plant and upgrades associ ated with repayment of the 2019 PFA Revenue Bond Series required debt. Staff added that the city still holds one of the lowest rates in the Metro Atlanta area, “which is making it more difficult to upgrade our infrastructure,” added City Manager Ray Gibson. “So, we are trying to plan for [costly upgrades].” The increase, noted as “pennies on the dollar,” equates to a $2.11 increase of the minimum residential water and sewer rate, a 10- cent increase per 1,000 gal- See Fayetteville, A5 Notice of Data Breach FAYETTE - EMS Man agement and Consultants, Inc. (“EMS | MC”) recently notified certain customers in Fayette County of an inci dent that may have im pacted the privacy of information related to cer tain patients, according to Fayette County officials. EMS | MC is a billing services provider for Fayette County Fire and Emergency Services. While EMS | MC is reportedly unaware of any actual or attempted misuse of information in relation to the incident, it is providing potentially affected individ uals with information about the incident and steps indi viduals may take to help protect their information should they feel it is nec essary to do so. On May 31, and again in June, Progress Software Corp. publicly disclosed zero-day vulnerabilities that impacted the MOVEit Transfer tool. The county’s billing services provider (“EMS | MC”) is a user of that tool. EMS|MC moved quickly to apply available patching and undertook recommended mitigation steps. EMS | MC promptly launched an investigation, with the assistance of third- party cybersecurity special ists, to determine the potential impact of the vul nerabilities’ presence on the MOVEit Transfer server on the security of data housed on the server. EMS|MC’s investigation determined that an un known actor exploited vul- See NOTICE, A5 Fayette B0E Receives Back-to-School Updates First Look at Budget Breakdown Don Harp, center, poses with his family before a mile-long walk around downtown Fayetteville. Hoojin’ It for Harp Race to Cure Sarcoma Raises $55K-Plus Brigitte Greer Staff Writer bgreer@fayette-news.net When a loved one is dia gnosed with cancer, dark ness often seems inevitable, and when diagnosed with a rare cancer, brightness can seem even harder to find. But for 25-year-old Fay etteville resident Don Harp, the brightness at the end of the tunnel has been visible from the beginning. Although commonly diagnosed in children, Harp was diagnosed with sar coma as an adult in De cember 2021. Since then, he and his family have been fighting hard to bring awareness to the rare cancer. In honor of Sarcoma Awareness Month, event or ganizer Susie Arrington in vited family, friends, and See Harp, A2 Leah Banks Investigative Reporter leah@fayette-news.net With the 2023-24 school year right around the cor ner, Fayette County Board of Education met on July 17 to discuss updates for the beginning of the school year and moving forward for families and students. Of the topics on the agenda, the superinten dent’s report included an in structional and operational update, along with the 2023-2024 staffing update. Within the staffing up date, it was noted that there are teacher vacancies avail able at Sandy Creek High School and employee va cancies available in the cen tral office. According to Fayette County Schools Director of Human Resources Erin Robeson, a more detailed update of these vacancies and open positions will be provided in August, but staff is confident they will be working diligently to fill these vacancies. At the end of Robeson’s presentation, board member Scott Howell in quired about the impor tance of substitute teachers and the impact they have within the school system. Questions swirled about whether retirees who wished to be substitute teachers would have to en dure some type of training. According to Robeson, it is a law that former edu cators do not have to un dergo training to become substitute teachers. The next segment of the meeting included discussion of the 2023-24 system budget, maintenance, and restoration plan. Staff told the board they would return See B0E, A5 Tyrone Council OKs Purchase of PD Body, Vehicle Cameras Mayor Proclaims July Muslim American Heritage Month in Fayetteville The Fayetteville Mayor and City Council recognized Muslim American Heritage Month on July 20, which is recognized throughout the State of Georgia during July, reading a local proclamation highlighting the cultural diversity and contributions to the community by those of the local Muslim community, designating the month of July, each year, as Muslim American Heritage Month in the City of Fayetteville. Mayor Ed Johnson presented attending community members with Fay etteville bicentennial coins during the event. Community News and Small Business Support Act Introduced Bipartisan Bill Provides Tax Credits to Newspapers, Advertisers Leah Banks Investigative Reporter leah@fayette-news.net During the July 20 Town of Tyrone Council meeting, members ap proved the purchase of 11 additional body cameras and 12 vehicle cameras for Tyrone Police Department, totaling $33,683, $7,000 higher than the original projected cost of $26,683. According to Tyrone Po lice Chief Randy Mundy, the price increase results from the updated software for cameras that are within the official police vehicles. Without updated software, body cameras are fully op erational, but vehicle cam eras would not be functional. “During our budget workshop, I discussed with you all the need to get some new body cameras as ours are just about obsolete and no longer supported,” Mundy explained to coun cil. “So, you guys were in agreement with that. We got a quote on it, and when we received the quote, the original quote was for $26,683.00. “Subsequent to us turn ing in our packet to all of you for approval, we re ceived word from Watch Guard that they failed to in clude a software upgrade for our cameras in our cars,” Mundy continued. “So, that would mean for us that our body cameras would work but our car cameras would not.” Mundy said the depart ment requested a new quote for the total amount of the purchase, resulting in the $7,000 increase in the total price. “We’re down to three body cameras that are func tional right now, so we’re really trying to get this under way,” Mundy said. “We have already pur chased three of the [body] cameras, so we’re looking to purchase 11 more,” he con cluded. “We’ve already got three for a total of 14. We will have the ELA platform for those 14 body cameras and for 12 vehicle cameras.” New legislation to sup port local newsrooms and small businesses has been introduced in the 118th Congress, according to a statement from Georgia Press Association. The Community News & Small Business Support Act was announced Friday, July 21, by sponsors Rep. Clau dia Tenney (NY-24-R) and Rep. Suzan DelBene (WA-i- D), both members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee. The bipartisan legisla tion supports two institu tions critical to sustaining hometown communities - local news organizations and small businesses. “I understand how es sential it is to support local newspapers and provide our See Tax Credits, A2 INSIDE: FAYETTE VIEWS SPORTS A4 LEGALS B1 SCHOOL B3 CLASSIFIEDS 26 FAYETTE FOOTPRINTS CONTACT US: support@fayette-news.net - (770) 461-6317 - fayette-news.net B6 B6 We Look Forward To Seeing You Soon! 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