Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

PAGE 2A THE JACKSON HERALD WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021 Commerce Wascher: City ‘not immune ’ to labor shortage Braselton Braselton delays decision on historic home demolition request By Alex Buffington alex@mainstreetnews.com ’’Now hiring” signs have be come the norm across the county as many businesses in the area struggle to pull in employees to fill open positions. The City of Commerce is not immune to the labor shortage, city manager James Wascher said recently. "We have several open po sitions in the city that we are struggling to fill,” Wascher told the Commerce City Council at its Sept. 20 meeting. “This is a common problem you can see across all sectors during this time.” Wascher said they have open ings in utilities, public works and the police department. "These positions are getting very, very difficult to fill,” he noted. Wascher said that for some positions, the city has received zero applicants. For others, those who applied don't meet the qual ifications. Wascher said city staff plans to meet to discuss ideas on build ing excitement around the open positions and the benefits of working for the city. COUNCIL SETS MILEAGE RATE Also at its meeting, the coun cil voted to set the 2021 millage rate at 3.86 mills, holding the rate steady from the 2020 rate. Mayor Clark Hill said that maintaining the current rate will "allow us to do a lot of things that we need to do as we grow.” LAND BANK IGA In other business, the council voted to move forward with an intergovernmental agreement with Jackson County, forming the Commerce Land Bank. Land banks acquire rundown properties, sometimes through foreclosures, condemnations or tax sales, then clean them up or aggregate several parcels so that the property can be resold to pri vate investors for an approved use. "This would be a great tool for us to use going forward to address some of the blighted properties (in the city),” said Hill. Commerce has been working with the county for two years on the project Wascher said at the council’s Sept. 7 work session. He noted that it would require some seed funding to get the programs up and going. The city land bank would be overseen by a five-member board with one of those from the county and four from the city. A city board of education represen tative would also be invited as an advisory members. OTHER BUSINESS In other business, the council: •heard from Rob Jordan, who commended the city for putting a “pause” on residential development and encouraged the county and municipalities to join together for a moratorium. “I would just like to suggest that Commerce, Jackson County and all the cities in Jackson County come together as one and make the moratorium universal in Jackson County for at least a year,” Jordan said at the Sept. 20 council meeting. “Because after a year, we'll be able to look back on this current growth spurt that’s going on in the area... We'll be better able to judge what type of impact they’re go ing to have now and what kind of an impact they’re going to have in the future.” During a Sept. 7 Commerce City Council meet ing, city leaders agreed to a tem porary “pause” in development until it can make plans to expand its infrastructure. The Jackson County Board of Commission ers issued a formal moratorium for the county and extended that moratorium for one year at its Sept. 20 meeting. •approved a request for retail package sales of beer and wine (for a new owner) at 517 South Elm St. •approved street closures for the city’s Bands, Brews, BBQ and Car Show on Oct. 2. Lit tle, Oak and Pine streets will be closed from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on that day. The council also ap proved a beer garden and event zone for the event. •approved a request to slow down traffic for the Run for Hope 5K on Oct. 23 from the start of the race at 8 a.m. until the race is complete. By Ben Munro ben@mainstreetnews. com The Braselton Town Council will use 30 more days to decide the fate of a 121-year-old home near downtown. The council voted 5-0 Monday (Sept. 13) to postpone action on Lexes Homes’ request to demol ish a historic home at 9681 Davis St. It will vote on the matter at its October busi ness meeting. Mayor Bill Orr made the motion to delay the deci sion to allow the council more time to gather infor mation. gap, Poe suggested possi ble use of federal funds re ceived from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which are not included in the proposed budget, and totals about $14 million. However, the county is waiting for final regula tions in regards to how that money can be spent before factoring it into the budget. A major contributor to the expenditures are per sonnel salary and benefit increases, which make up the bulk of the budget, said Poe. Increases in staffing in clude several new full-time and part-time positions and a proposed average pay adjustment of 4.25%. Ad ditionally. staffing benefit costs are projected to rise across the board, with in creases in insurance costs and defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pension plans. Addi tional pay adjustments for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) staff are also budgeted. “Not only did we want to do the cost of living adjust ments and pay our employ ees. but we're also trying to recruit new employees too, “I just think we need a little more time,” Orr said. “I’m not prepared to deny or move forward.” Councilwoman Becky Richardson originally made a motion to deny the demolition, but that motion died after failing to gain a second. The Davis St. house pre-dates paved roads in Braselton and is one of the contributing build ings to the town’s histor ic district. The home was built in 1900 according to county records. The town once had over 30 struc tures listed as contributing so we want to keep com petitive entry level salaries as well as competitive pay to retain employees,” said Poe. Other drivers of the in crease include $8.8 million of capital projects, includ ing $1.6 million in vehicle and equipment upgrades. Similar to the FY21 bud get, the county will also allocate $7.8 million, or 12% of the general fund, for debt service payments. CAPITAL PROJECTS The county has a num ber of capital projects in its FY22 budget proposal, including: • Increase of approx imately $200,000 due to 2022 being an election year with the possibility of four to six elections during the year based on run-offs and federal elections and im provements to the elections office at Gordon Street at $1.2 million. • Capital Improvements at parks including: new maintenance building and major capital repairs to park and conference center at Hurricane Shoals Park totaling $60,000; fencing, parking, trails, signage, utilities and amenities at buildings but at least half no longer exist, according to town manager Jennifer Scott. If enough buildings are removed, the town could lose its historic district designation. It was not certain, however, what that threshold of buildings is. Scott said she learned that the original portion of the house — which con sists of two to three rooms — could be moved from the lot, but not the addi tions. Ken Gary, of Lexes Homes, said during the Tanner Park at Walnut Creek totaling $150,000; phase one planning and engineering, road parking, signage, trails and ameni ties at River Glen Park to taling $150,000; dog park and trails at main court house campus at $50,000. • A $ 300.000 reroofing project at Commerce Ser vice Center. • Updates to the Agri cultural Center including an RV park, arena lighting and one dump trailer at $140,000. • West Jackson EMS ex pansion station at $750,000 • Public works special projects, road projects and Skelton Road improve ments come to $4.3 mil lion. • Phase two of the ani mal control shelter expan sion and the transfer station upgrade at $1 million each. • Water system improve ments at Nicholson Water Authority at $150,000. • Airport runway and taxiway pavement rehabil itation project at $200,000. HIGHLIGHTS Other highlights in the proposed budget are: • Proposed equipment and vehicle purchases at council’s Thursday (Sept. 9) work session that the company has no interest saving the home or mov ing it. Gary said the lot will become a green space if the home is demolished. He reiterated that Lexes has no desire to preserve the structure. “We just do not want that old house.” he said. “It doesn’t equate to a benefit to us.” CLOSED SESSION After meeting in closed session, the council voted to authorize Orr to nego tiate a renewal of Scott’s contract. $1.6 million. • Projected increases in Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) of $1.8 million and Tag Ad Valorem Tax (TAVT) of $1.1 million from FY2 based on collec tions through Aug. 2021. Also, the Insurance Premi um Tax (IPT) is projected to increase by 5.5% from FY21. • Survey and place mon uments at Jackson/Barrow county line at $39,000 for professional fees, survey ing and monument place ment. • Anticipated 10%-15% increase in renewal of vari ous maintenance contracts, • Need to acquire addi tional data storage capaci ty plus general increase in cost of purchasing comput er equipment projected at $75,000 and security soft ware increases in users, li censes and vendor costs at $46,000. • Project increase in contract price for third party inmate medical care at $35,000 and increase of $47,000 for new contract with Public Defender’s of fice, which was approved for the July 1,2021 — June 30, 2022 fiscal year. COVID continued from 1A the county. That’s down from the week prior, but is still double the state average rate per capita. There have been 12,044 COVID cases in Jackson Coun ty since the start of the pandemic, the fifth highest per capita of any county in the state. Forty percent of county residents are fully vaccinated. The county’s three school systems reported the following at the end of last week: •Commerce City Schools — 5 active cases between students and staff, down from 27 the week prior •Jefferson City Schools — 16 active cases between students and staff, down from 26 the week prior •Jackson County — 59 new cases (down 35.2% from the week prior) Moratorium continued from 1A Jackson County and all the cities in Jackson County come together as one and make the moratorium uni versal in Jackson County for at least a year,” said Rob Jordan. The BOC’s meeting saw a packed room of people, many wearing green shirts to show support for the mor atorium. A half-dozen people spoke in favor the moratorium with most of those coming from the west side of Jackson County where residential development has been most intense in recent years. Mary Adams, owner of Grace Re alty Group in Hoschton, said that despite her professional reliance on selling homes, she supports the mor atorium. “I sell these homes, (but) I don’t want to see anymore right now,” she said. “There’s far too many of them popping up in our community and all around our county.” Adams said she would like to see changes made in the process of ap proving new developments in the county by having new schools and roads in place before development happens. She also called for impact fees in the county to help offset the cost of growth. One person spoke in opposition to the moratorium. Wayne Whitelaw of Jefferson said the county already has regulations in place to control growth. He said that many of the traffic problems are on state roads that the county has no control over and that infrastructure should not be built ahead of growth. Whitelaw also questioned how the new industries coming to the county are going to hire workers if there is no local housing available. Budget continued from 1A Commerce continued from 1A on the size, siding and mod ulation of the residences, along with entrance and buf fer requirements. CHURCH MILL REQUEST WITHDRAWN In other business, a church that planned to redevelop a section of the old mill with drew its request. New Grace had requested a conditional use to allow a religious institution at the 821 S. Elm St. location (the historic old mill on the south side of town). The church had planned to redevelop a section of the mill to use for its church. The request was with drawn due to the inability to secure permanent parking for the facility. ASHWORTH REQUEST TABLED Also at its meeting, the council tabled a rezoning request for an existing mo bile home neighborhood to allow additional time to re solve some issues with the request. Property owner Michael Scott is requesting a re zoning of 19.5 acres at 935 Homer Rd. (the Ashworth Mobile Home community). Scott is requesting a change from R-l to R-5, along with variances. Scott has owned the prop erty — which has been used for decades as a mobile home community — since the mid 1980s. He reportedly wants to bring in a few more mobile homes to the property, but was told the property didn't have the proper zoning for a mobile home community. Scott then filed a request to rezone the property from R-l to R-5 to match the existing use of the proper ty. along with variances for setbacks. City leaders can’t find any records of when the property was annexed into the city or why it shows up on city zoning maps as R-l (single family homes) rather than R-5 for mobile home parks. In addition, Wascher said there was apparently an agreement between the city and property owner for an easement in return for providing taps for the mo bile homes, but again, no records of that agreement have been found. NOTICE The Jackson County Board of Commissioners does hereby announce that the millage rate will be set at a meeting to be held at the Jackson County Administrative Building on September 29, 2021 at 6:30PM and pursuant to the requirements of O.C.G.A. § 48-5-32 does hereby publish the following presentation of the current year's tax digest and levy, along with the history of the tax digest and levy for the past five years. CURRENT 2021 PROPERTY TAX DIGEST AND 5 YEAR HISTORY OF LEVY u UNINCORPORATED 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 N Real & Personal 1,488,377,336 1,548,868,626 1,667,671,079 1,766,333,206 1,853,245,334 2,140,021,135 N C Motor Vehicles 51,267,960 39,764,120 32,435,090 27,795,850 25,581,170 21,805,118 V Mobile Homes 5,579,991 5,214,441 5,020,410 5,111,603 5,223,703 4,301,664 O A Timber-100% 395,044 137,762 368,014 400,284 250,190 318,256 R U Heavy Duty Equipment 0 3,095 0 0 0 0 O E Gross Digest 1,545,620,331 1,593,988,044 1,705,494,593 1,799,640,943 1,884,300,397 2,166,446,173 R Less Exemptions 302,153,054 310,053,660 328,344,613 326,667,326 333,835,859 315,014,275 A NET DIGEST VALUE 1,243,467,277 1,283,934,384 1,377,149,980 1,472,973,617 1,550,464,538 1,851,431,898 Gross Maintenance & E 13.9000 13.9000 13.9000 13.9000 13.9000 11.9000 R Operation Millage A Less Rollbacks A T (Local Option Sales Tax & 4.3000 4.4840 4.4840 4.7340 4.9500 3.8400 R E Insurance Premium) E NET M&O MILLAGE RATE 9.6000 9.4160 9.4160 9.1660 8.9500 8.0600 A TAX NET M&O TAXES LEVIED $11,937,286 $12,089,526 $12,967,244 $13,501,276 $13,876,658 $14,922,541 INCORPORATED 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 N C Real & Personal 1,267,265,809 1,420,935,537 1,580,189,060 1,721,509,125 1,953,257,285 2,285,769,069 Motor Vehicles 29,342,370 22,876,680 18,209,430 15,848,600 13,760,770 11,876,660 O V Mobile Homes 1,939,666 1,765,624 1,676,124 1,706,232 1,712,059 1,707,912 R A Timber-100% 133,332 0 15,107 4,937 46,140 0 O U Heavy Duty Equipment 0 42,023 0 0 0 0 R E Gross Digest 1,298,681,177 1,445,619,864 1,600,089,721 1,739,068,894 1,968,776,254 2,299,353,641 A Less Exemptions 296,504,409 331,389,513 331,759,464 374,593,436 360,550,264 394,402,504 E NET DIGEST VALUE 1,002,176,768 1,114,230,351 1,268,330,257 1,364,475,458 1,608,225,990 1,904,951,137 D Gross Maintenance & 13.9000 13.9000 13.9000 13.9000 13.9000 11.9000 R Operation Millage A A Less Rollback T 2.7900 2.9670 2.9670 3.0870 3.4530 2.4120 E (Local Option Sales Tax) A NET M&O MILLAGE RATE 11.1100 10.9330 10.9330 10.8130 10.4470 9.4880 TAX NET M&O TAXES LEVIED $11,134,184 $12,181,880 $13,866,655 $14,754,073 $16,801,137 $18,074,176 TOTAL COUNTY 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 V TOTAL DIGEST VALUE 2,245,644,045 2,398,164,735 2,645,480,237 2,837,449,075 3,158,690,528 3,756,383,035 % C Oy TOTAL M&O TAXES LEVIED $23,071,470 $24,271,407 $26,833,899 $28,255,349 $30,677,795 $32,996,717 Net Tax $ Increase $1,199,937 $2,562,492 $1,421,450 $2,422,445 $2,318,923 Net Tax % Increase 5.20% 10.56% 5.30% 8.57% 7.56%