About The Georgia post. (Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (March 14, 2013)
©3© raffl ac© ross? ssHs® etjoaiig) sH to gj^aatosocss ©sa^ Wsstimsfay sto? stosl (MO /Susasste) Rteffl ^S/iMS®=^W to kbso© BtaS«if[jjDgSS3j0b CC 4-H ANNUAL RABIES CLINIC SATURDAY, MARCH 16TH SEE SCHEDULE INSIDE Citizens In Favor Of New Industrial Park As Long As It Does Not Impact Taxes by Abigail Adams - The Georgia Post Crawford County Commis sioners and the Development Authority have been discuss ing the possibility of a new industrial park lately and after two private meetings on the subject, Commissioner Chair man, Dean Fripp decided it was time to get the public’s opinion on the issue. A special called meeting was held to allow citizens to let the board know how they felt about the county purchasing a piece of property to potentially build another industrial park. After opening the meeting Ralph Nix and Laura Mathis of the Regional Commis sion presented the benefits of a new industrial park being built and what kind of impact it would have on the eco nomic development of the community. Mathis gave the presentation stating that the new park built on an over one hundred acre lot will offer the county almost 250 jobs and will add $5.7 million in value to the tax digest. This could possibly help to lower taxes on the rooftops of homeown ers in the county. The piece of property the board is looking at as a loca tion for the new park adjoins the rail system and would allow for more growth eco nomically in the county. As the floor opened to the public to voice their opinion Cham ber of Commerce Director Patti Temple informed the board, that in her experience, there have been several op portunities lost for businesses to locate to Crawford County because of the space limita tions of the current park. Others in the room had their own concerns about the park and the economic impact it may have on the taxpayer. Larry Cooley stated that he was all for the addition of another industrial park and for the future growth of the county, but he did not want to see the financial burden of buying the property and set ting up the correct infrastruc ture on the property fall back on the taxpayers. This seemed to be the con sensus of the group of citizens that were present. If the park is unsuccessful citizens are worried that the county will have to raise their taxes in order to cover the debt cre ated by the park. Some of the citizens present had concerns about the secrecy leading up to the public hearing on the issue and that the board would not release the information on the cost or the whereabouts of the property they are inter ested in purchasing. Members of the Develop ment Authority that were present, newly elected Chairman Brenda Carroll and former chairman Char lie Westberry addressed the concerns, stating the list of tenants at the current park and how much they contribute to the county and restating the fact that other opportunities to build on the economy through businesses locating here have been missed because of the lack of space. Under the advice of County Attorney David Mincey, Westberry gave the crowd the price and size of the piece of property, stating that the landowner was asking $5,000 and acre for a 140-acre lot, but nothing has been agreed upon just yet. As the hearing began to run late and the time for the com missioners regular meeting to start drew close Fripp thanked everyone for their comments and concerns. The board will take everything into consid eration. Mathis and Nix both stated that there are grants to help fund the project and the boards will be looking into these before moving fur ther. Both the Development Authority Board and Com missioners have promised to handle this issue as wisely and cost effectively as possible. Counseling Center Offered Community Center Lease The Development Author ity of Crawford County has offered the lease for the Community Center to the Counseling Center. Carol Jackson, Executive Director says this service is very much needed in the community and wants to see it continue. No decision has been made as to whether the Counseling Center will take over the lease for the center. In other business at their March meeting the board heard from Audrea Simmons of the Department of Labor about new programs. One in particular, Georgia Best, deals with business ethics and student training, caught the attention of the board and these classes may be brought here for citizens in the near future. E-SPLOST Vote On Tuesday There’s a new meat market in Culloden with a butcher on hand five days a week. Rosa Lee’s Meat Market recently opened on Main Street. Pictured from left are Mayor Ellis, Rosa Lee Hampton, whom the market is named after, and her nephew David Mathews. The family encourages you to visit and buy some great meat. They also offer other items. See the advertisement on Page 3 for what they offer. Tuesday March 19th, there will be a special election held for the public to vote on containing the E-SPLOST (Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) funds for the school system in Crawford County. What is E-SPLOST you may ask? E-SPLOST are funds the school system uses to main tain and repair the school’s buildings, buy textbooks and school buses and to keep up to date with the latest technol ogy. It covers everything that the state does not cover except for personnel costs. How does E-SPLOST affect you, the taxpayer? E-SPLOST does not affect the taxpayer in a negative way, according to Supt. John Douglas, in fact it is quite the opposite. Thanks to E-SPLOST funds the school system does not have to raise the taxpayers’ tax rate because the funds cover the cost of items and services for the school system that tax revenues do not. “We receive about $49,000 a month from E-SPLOST,” Superintendent John Doug las stated. “That is about the equivalent of raising taxes by about 2-3 mils.” E-SPLOST is not a new thing and the school system has been receiving the funds for almost the last 15 years now. Douglas says that the public should not worry about any adverse effect coming back on them with this vote and that this is just a continu ation of something that has been going on for over a decade now. The period of time for the new E-SPLOST is not to ex ceed five years and raise not more than $4,500,000. You will answer either “yes” or “:no” on whether you think the one percent sales tax for educational purposed should be imposed. You are to vote at your regular county poll and the polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. that day. Sparks Fly At Commissioners’ Meeting by Abigail Adams - The Georgia Post At the regular meeting of the county commissioners sparks began to fly as coro ner Allen O’Neal brought his concerns about the ethics involved in the Develop ment Authority’s bid process. After Chairman Dean Fripp tabled the appearance of Andrea Peterman who was arrested just the day before the meeting and had been scheduled to appear before the commissioners about the city municipal court and added Middle Georgia Con sortium to the agenda, the meeting began with O’Neal presenting his issue to the board first. In October of 2012 the De velopment Authority decided to relieve O’Neal of his grass cutting contract with them when they found that elected officials could not take contracts with county boards. The issue concerned O’Neal as he stated he had been doing business with the Authority for the almost 20 years. He also stated that the business is not his but belongs to his sons. He questioned the author ity’s bid process and claimed that even though he had purchased worker’s com pensation and turned in his bid on time to the office they awarded the bid to someone who had turned in their bid late and did not have the required insurance. Former authority Chair man Charlie Westberry who was present at the meeting, commented that he felt the board had acted correctly in the matter and that the reason O’Neal did not win the bid was because of his position as an elected official. County Manager David Mincey stated that the is sue was not something the Board of Commissioners could intervene on behalf of either party. He suggested to O’Neal to find an attorney to handle the matter if he felt he had been wronged. Commissioner Bobby Blasingame will be retaining Darren Suggs as his repre sentative on the Planning and Zoning board. Suggs has served on the board for the last four years representing District two in the county and will continue to serve for another four years. Seven projects to be done in the county have received bids. The commissioners have awarded the Hopewell East spot overlays project to Georgia Asp., who will also be doing the resurfac ing project for that road and for Causey Road, Whitaker Road and Causey Road spot overlays have been awarded to Womack, and Middle Georgia will be taking on the Whitaker Road and Salem Church Road double surface treatments. The coroner’s budget came up for discussion next on the agenda. County Manager Pat Kelly stated that while re viewing the current coroner’s budget to find requested funds for local funeral homes to remove, refrigerate and transport remains to the crime lab for a fee of $425 per each suspicious death event, he ran across some questions as to current pay rates for the comer and his deputy coroners. After some discussion the board asked Kelly to research the current budgets of county coroners from counties of similar sizes to Crawford before they made any decision. A county citizen has requested the board extend a water line approximately 350 feet for him to be able to hook up to the county water system. The cost of material will cost the county $7,450 and will come from unre stricted general funds. Be cause the extension will help in the future extension of water services further west, the board approved to extend the water so the requesting citizen could hook up to the county water line. Middle Georgia Consor tium representative Mr. Hol lis came before the board to ask that they support the con sortium in opposing a House Bill that would change the function and fiscal agent of the consortium. He stated a majority of the members of the consortium are opposed to this bill. The board agreed to oppose the bill and stated that they would request Rep resentative Robert Dickey to stand in opposition of the bill as well. Shoppers shopped until they dropped at the annual Peaches to Beaches which has been deemed very successful in Roberta. It was held this past Friday and Saturday all along Hwy. 341. Items to be found ran the gamut of from the ordinary to antique to the extra-ordinary. The weather also cooperated.
