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Commissioners hope to avoid borrowing on TAN WALTER GEIGER news@barnesville.cam Noting sales tax collec tions set a new record in April, county administra tor Sean Townsend told the county commission TOWNSEND May 18 it is possible the county may make it through 2021 with out borrow ing against its Tax Anticipation Note (TAN) line of credit. “We haven’t used TAN yet and we hope not to have to use it,” Townsend said, much to the delight of the com missioners. The line of credit has been a staple of county finances for years. Townsend said sales tax collections were about $122,000 last month. They usually run around $90,000 per month. “The school board set a record, too,” Townsend added. In other action, the commission: •Approved routine minutes. •Agreed to sell at surplus three worn out vehicles from the sher iff’s office fleet. •Accepted a bid from Midstate Striping in the amount of $36,000 for striping and guard rail repair on Yatesville Road. •Agreed to refund property taxes to White Horse Partners/Loblolly Investments for $1815.05. CUVA was approved for the property but never applied. •Accepted a bid of $71,560 from Precision Planning to do architec tural planning for the new recreation depart ment gym. This is a SPLOST project. •Noted bids will soon be sought for the new animal shelter, the last major project to be started under the current SPLOST •Appointed Laura Trice to the Board of Health to replace Jodi Kidd. •Appointed Lavetrece Walker to the Board of Appeals. •Approved the second reading of a financial policy ordinance. •Approved the second reading of an ordinance to designate the section of McKenzie Road from the Milner city limits to Martin Dairy Road as a no thru trucks zone. Tuesday, May 25,2021 ®[je Hrraltr <©a?£tte 3A THE HERALD GAZETTE/WALTER GEIGER County approves zoning for police dog kennel, cell tower WALTER GEIGER news@barnesville.com At its regular meet ing May 18, the Lamar County commission ap proved a special zoning exception to allow a dog kennel on 80 acres at 544 Yatesville Road. The exception was sought by Heather Henderson and Robert Leigh who own Arete Canine. Arete trains dogs for tracking, detection, executive security and other duties for the mili tary and law enforcement agencies around the world. Leigh and Hender son created a kennel in a barn on the property last November but were stopped in March due to noise complaints from neighbors. They said they were unaware of the noise until they went to help a neighbor catch cows and heard it for themselves. They have since closed in the barn doors and added noise suppressing insulation throughout the barn. “The metal building acted like a cheerleader’s megaphone. We were un aware of the noise issue,” Leigh said. Arete trains dogs for Homeland Security, ICE, TSA and many other clients. “We trained less than 10 dogs here from November to March. Those dogs were suc cessful on 40 or 60 tracks. Nationally, the success rate is 30%,” Leigh said. Their canines also assisted in 150 non marijuana, felony drug arrests and brought to hand a violent pedophile that resulted in a human trafficking arrest, he added. No one spoke against the kennel during the public hearing portion of the meeting. Zoning ad ministrator Anita Buice said the board of appeals urged the exception be granted. The commission voted unanimously to allow the exception, limiting the number of dogs that can be onsite at any given time to 44. During another hear ing, the commission heard no opposition to a cell tower to be erected by Fortified Telecom for Verizon Wireless. The 150 foot tower will be erected on a wooded tract at 1444 Hwy. 18 West. The property, owned by Diane Fuller, is very near the Pike County line. The tower was ap proved unanimously. On another zoning issue, the commission learned Dr. Wayne Kong had withdrawn his request for a driveway from the expansion of Zoe Pediatrics onto Silver Dollar Road. That request had property owners in the area up in arms at the April meet ing. Emotional moment as Smith gives granddaughter her diploma McKenna Strom shed tears of joy after receiving her diploma from her grandfather, school board member Ronald Smith (center). Smith has also presented diplomas to his three children during his 33 years service on the board. McKenna was his first grandchild to graduate. Looking on is school superintendent Dr. Jute Wilson (left) THE HERALD GAZETTE/WALTER GEIGER Signing to reach all Keri Brousseau O’Neill had a busy morning Saturday at the LCHS graduation ceremony at Trojan Field. O’Neil, an LC fac ulty member, presented the entire program in sign language to one hearing-challenged student in the graduating class. CALENDAR ITEMS • The John Birch Society will meet Wednesday, May 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lamar County Library meeting room located on Thomaston St. • The Lamar County Republican Party meets the first Tuesday of the month at 6:45 p.m. in the Com missioners meeting room. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, June 1, 2021. • The Boy Scout Troop 38 will celebrate their 75th anniversary on Saturday, June 5 in conjunction with the June Court of Honor from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Aldora Park. The church will have the grill from United Bank set up to cook lunch. COVID-19: Four new cases last week Lamar County had 1,362 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of the May 23 update from DPH. That number is up from 1,358 cases May 16. La mar has had 124 corona- virus related hospitaliza tions and 46 deaths. As of Monday, sheriff Brad White was tracking eight positive cases at eight local residences. Local COVID-19 numbers and those from surrounding counties are updated daily at barnes- ville.com. Milner investigation FROM PAGE ONE funds, already avail able to the city but can only be spent on infra structure not including roads. She said many complaints come to City Hall about water billing mistakes by Barnesville, and older meters may be the problem. Attorney Newton Gal loway of Griffin, a former Milner city attorney, represented Randolph (Rudy) Vaughn on an ordinance to de-annex Student records This is to provide no tice to all students and or parents of students with disabilities who attended Lamar County Schools with birthdates on or between October 2, 1996 and December 21, 1999 that their records are no longer needed for educa tional purposes and will five acres of his land, as described in property books, from the city back into the county. The county has approved acceptance, he said; council approved first reading. Galloway also provid ed the “comic relief” in the tense meeting: “And 1 trust,” he said after the ordinance was approved, “that anything 1 did or didn’t do many years ago as city attorney, the statute of limitations has long passed.” to be destroyed be destroyed after May 31,2021. Those who want or need these records may contact the Exceptional Student Education office at 770-358-5891 prior to May 31, 2021. Those requesting records will be required to provide identification. NOTICE TO TAXPAYERS: Lamar County, along with many other counties in Georgia are experiencing what can only be described as an “inflated” real estate market. The combination of historically low interest rates, with historically high construction costs, are driving home sales to an all-time high. Unfortunately, if there are enough sales within the county that are a certain percentage higher than the Assessors values, the Georgia State Audit Department mandates an increase in property values. This is what has happened in Lamar County. Current 2020 sales have indicated that Lamar County was well below the accepted sales ratio range for the Audit Department. While an increase in property values is probable, a representative from Norman Appraisal Services will be available to discuss individual properties with taxpayers. A sales package will be provided to taxpayers upon request, containing sales throughout Lamar County of like properties. The package will be provided to show how low Lamar County Residential property values were last year compared to current year sales. The amount of increase to each property, while significant, should not be basis for appeals, but the value of your home, compared to sales within Lamar County. The increase to property values in Lamar County are based solely on current market adjustments and have nothing to do with taxes or need to increase revenue. 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