Newspaper Page Text
reserves not moved
By Frank Reddy
Staff Writer
Key Forsyth County offi
cials have the authority to move
up to $5 million from county
reserves to cover the growing
budget deficit, though they
haven’t done so yet.
That was the finding of
County Attorney Ken Jarrard,
who the county commission
directed to look into the matter.
Questions about a possible
shift of funds arose after com
missioners received a midyear
2008 budget report last week
from Bill Thomas, the county’s
chief financial officer.
The report showed the coun
ty’s budget deficit has grown to
$6.9 million, an increase of
Council
OKs final
phase of
water plan
By Jennifer Sami
Staff Writer
At a price of nearly $6.4
million, Phase III of
Cumming’s 1020 raw water
plan will be completed.
Cumming’s mayor and
council approved the pro¬
ject’s final phase Tuesday
night, awarding the bid to
W.L. Hailey, which has also
been awarded the first two
phases.
“They’re a great contrac¬
tor,” said Jon Heard,
Cumming Utilities Depart¬
ment director. “We’re pleased
that we’ve had a good experi¬
ence with Hailey and they’re
going to continue the project
to its completion.”
By June 2009, the entire
project is expected to' be
completed. It will allow the
city to pull water from Lake
Lanier from as deep as 1,020
feet above mean sea level.
When completed, the city
will have the capability of
pumping 110 million gallons
of water per day.
During the design process
of the final phase, there was a
possibility nearby homeown¬
ers would be impacted by the
installation of the 42-inch¬
wide pipe.
However after tweaking
the plan and talking with area
homeowners; there is only
one property that would be
affected.
The city is currently in
negotiations with the proper¬
ty owner and hopes to pur¬
chase an easement for about
$4,000.
Between all three phases,
the city has spent upward of
$15 million, all of which
came from the city’s reserves,
said Heard.
» Once the station is com¬
plete, it will supply the city
and county’s water needs for
the next 50 years,” he said.
During Tuesday’s meet¬
ing, the city also approved a
condition amendment and
variance request for a med¬
ical center located between
Oakland Drive, Maple Street
and Pirkle Ferry Road.
The center is owned by
Suresh Gudur, an internal
medicine physician, and
though it was originally
approved to be two stories,
the amendment approved by
the city will permit the struc¬
ture to be^three Stories,
increasing its size to 34,200
square feet.
Cumming Mayor H. Ford
Gravitt added the conditions
that the site work must be
done within 60 days and con¬
struction of the building must
be completed within 18
months. Should the condi¬
tions not be met, the city
would revert back to the ini¬
tial plan of two stories.
The city also approved a
parking space variance,
allowing the facility to have
eight less spaces than the pre¬
viously approved 128 mini¬
mum.
E-mail Jennifer Sami at
jennifersami@forsythnews.
com.
w
$200,000 since April, and indi¬
cated that $5 million had been
moved to help cover the short
fall,
Commissioners were con
cemed that they had not voted
' on such a transfer. In reality,
however, the board had
approved such a possibility
when it passed the budget back
in August 2007, Jarrard said,
The board’s blessing allows
Thomas and County Manager
Rhonda O’Connor to make
such a move, which they
haven’t chosen to do.
It’s one of those things
where even if they didn’t have
expressed permission to do it, if
it’s the difference between oper
ating and not operating, they
should go ahead and transfer it,”
Students collect books for hospital program
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Thurs.,, Fri. & Sat
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EARLY DEADLINES FOR
LABOR DAY
Because of the upcoming Labor Day holiday,
the ‘News’ will alter its ‘advertising’and
legals deadline as follows:
RETAIL & CLASSIFIED DISPLAY
Publication of Sun. 8/31/08
Deadline will be Wed. 8/27/08 at noon
Publication of Wed. 9/3/08 Forsyth & Dawson:
Deadline will be Thurs. 8/28/08 at noon
Publication of Thurs. 9/4/08 Forsyth
Deadline will be Fri. 8/29/08 at noon
Publication of Forsyth County Shopper 9/7/08
Deadline will be Fri. 8/29/08 at noon
Publication of Fri. 9/5/08 Forsyth
Deadline will be Tues. 9/2/08 at noon
CLASSIFIED LINE ADS
Publication of Sun. 8/31/08
Deadline will be Fri. 8/29/08 at noon
Publication of Wed. 9/3/08 Forsyth & Dawson
Deadline will be Fri. 8/29/08 at 3 p.m.
LEGALS
Publication of Wed. 9/3/08
Deadline will be Thurs. 8/28/08 at 5 *
p.m.
The Forsyth County News will be CLOSED Monday,
September 1, In observance of Labor Day.
r
Commissioner David Richard
said. “We’ll worry about paper
work later. *1
Neither Thomas nor
O’Connor could be reached for
comment. Both officials, staff
said, are on vacation this week.
Deputy County Manager
Doug Derrer said there are no
plans to use the $5 million from
county reserves.
.t Our current projections
indicate we will not be using
those funds to balance the bud
get,” he said.
"The county is weighing
options on how to cover the bud
get shortfall, which they have
attributed to the economic down-'
turn and a lack of development.
Last week, the commission
voted to freeze hiring until at
least today. The move was
aimed at* allowing time to
explore other possibilities,
which include suspending some
or all nonessential capital pro¬
jects and major maintenance
work.
The commission could
revisit the issue at this after¬
noon’s regularly scheduled
meeting.
Commissioner Linda
Ledbetter said she met with
County Finance Director
Cherrita Griswold on Tuesday
to sort through the issue,
Ledbetter said she worried
that transferring that much
money would have left the
county reserves shy of $25
million, a benchmark that
helps determine the county’s
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Humane Society of Forsyth County finds a forever home.
No-Kill Shelter
4440 Keith Bridge Phone: Road, 770-887-6480 Cumming, GA 30028 HUMANE
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1908-2008
\00th Anniversary r
Forsyth 'Hometown County I'aper" Since tpOB ** News
www.forsythnews. com
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS - Thursday, August
bond rating.
The bond rating has taken
on new significance as the
county prepares to issue $100
million in bonds for parks,
recreation and green space.
Voters approved the measure in
February.
I’m scared to death we
won’t get to bond that green
space money,” Ledbetter said.
“The bond rating would be so
atrocious if we have less than
$25 million in reserves.”
Richard agreed that keeping
money in reserves above $25
million was key.
We need that in order to be
considered doing well financial¬
ly,” Richard said. “Transferring
that much money, if you bring
us below $25 million, that’s a
problem with the state and other
financial institutions. ■
The county’s current bond
rating with financial research
company Moody’s Investors
Service is classified as Aal. The
bond rating with Standard &
Poor’s, another financial
researcher, is AA+.
According to Derrer, both of
the ratings are considered one
notch below the best possible
bond rating, AAA. He said only
three counties in the state have
AAA ratings: Cobb, DeKalb
and Gwinnett.
The county hired an audit¬
ing firm in June to take a closer
look at the county’s internal
financial controls as well as
potentially boost Forsyth’s bond
rating.
Students in North Forsyth
High School’s FBLA and
DECA clubs recently col¬
lected 723 new and used
children’s books for
Children’s Healthcare of
Atlanta’s Reach Out and
Read Program. The books
will be sent for patients to
read at the hospital and to
take home with them follow¬
ing treatment. The clubs
focus on business and mar¬
keting skills. Among those
taking part in the effort
were, from left, Jonathan
Davis, Arean Santamaria,
Christopher Rush, Lee
Huntley, Emily Portscher
and Keyla Santos.
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— PAGE 3A