Newspaper Page Text
TheTrue Citizen, Wednesday, December 16,2009 — Page 7
New county building
official is named
By Roy F. Chalker, Jr.
Editor
A veteran of the commercial
building industry has assumed
his duties as Burke County’s new
Building Official.
Scott Lee of Sylvania, previ
ous manager of the engineering
department at Cavalier Home
Builders in Millen, took over for
Bill Owens who retired last
summer.
County Administrator Merv
Waldrop said this week that
Lee’s 12 years in the residen
tial. commercial and light insti
tutional construction industry
made him well qualified for the
job. He also has extensive
knowledge of the state’s build
ing codes.
A graduate of Georgia South
ern University with a degree in
Building, Construction and
Contracting, Lee also has expe
rience and training in plans and
designs, drafting and ensuring
compliance with design speci
fications and building codes.
Commissioners had originally
offered the position to Marshall
Masters of Augusta, who ini
tially accepted but later declined
the job.
In Waynesboro
Delays and absences
plague city business
By Elizabeth Billips
lizbillips@yahoo.com
If Waynesboro councilmen
don’t call a meeting before Jan.
1, their newly elected candidate
will have to spend her holidays
digesting a 39-page charter.
For the past 18 months, city
council has been reviewing and
revising a lengthy and detailed
charter last updated in the
1970s. For more than a year,
it’s been on the table for ap
proval - but it hasn’t happened,
thanks to a combination of ab
sences and unresolved issues
with several paragraphs.
City attorney Chris Dube says
time has nearly run out for the
charter to be submitted to the
General Assembly so it can be
introduced as a bill. “If it’s not
done in January, it won’t make
it,” he said, noting that would
mean another year of waiting.
But with a cancelled Dec. 21
meeting and councilman Curtis
Bell stepping down Dec. 31, it
looks as if newly elected Portia
Lodge Washington will have to
hop on the tail-end and play
catch-up if the long delayed
project is to make it.
City council has been trying
to get their revised charter to
the capital since December
2008 when they unanimously
approved it with a 4-0 vote, mi
nus councilmen Curtis Bell,
who left the meeting early, and
Willie Roy Williams, who was
absent.
The charter was rejected by
Rep. Gloria Frazier and Sena
tor J.B. Powell, both of whom
said the it must be approved by
every single council member.
In the 12 months since, the
charter has been the object of
routine discussions at council
meetings, and, at times, oppo
sition.
For the past few months,
councilman Willie Roy Will
iams has voiced his concerns
about several paragraphs, in
cluding one aimed at discour
aging votes of abstention when
there is not a conflict of inter
est. Attorney Dube says that
under the revised charter, a
council member’s abstention
will be counted with the ma
jority unless there is pre-dis-
closed conflict of interest that
prevents him/her from voting.
Earlier this year, he told coun
cil the paragraph was put there
so council could not use the
practice of abstaining to pre
vent a motion from getting the
minimum number of votes to
pass, as has happened routinely
to the Richmond County Com
mission.
At past council meetings,
Dube has repeatedly asked Wil
liams and any others with con
cerns to talk with him one-on-
one about their specific wor
ries. As of Tuesday, no one had
done so.
While Williams has not
clearly articulated his objec
tions, his voting history shows
that most of his abstentions in
2008 and 2009 were made fol
lowing a tardiness or absence
that prevented him from receiv
ing information about the is
sue at hand.
At several past meetings,
vice-mayor James “Chick”
Jones has also asked fellow
councilmen to put their con
cerns in writing so everyone
could review them, but not one
has been received.
At their regular Dec. 7 meet
ing, five of the six councilmen
came prepared to sign off on
the charter, but were unable to
do so when Williams didn’t
show up.
His absence and council’s re
peated failure to sew up the old
business caused a stir in the au
dience, especially from regu
lar Bill Alston who chastised of
ficials for their sluggishness
and Williams for his absences
and failure to follow through.
“This charter is being held
hostage by one or two people,”
he said, calling for action.
City Administrator Jerry
Coalson says there’s more at
stake than just the charter.
“It’s a logjam,” he said, list
ing off ordinances, zoning
changes and recodifications
that are hinged on the adoption.
While the proposed revisions
will align the city charter with
federal and state laws that have
changed since the 1970s, the
new charter is also designed to
outline the operational changes
that have taken place at city hall
since then.
Coalson says if the charter
isn’t passed into law this go-
round, the back-log will only
grow larger.
MAMMA
MIA!
A creepy tale paid off big
time for fifth-grader
Ginny Lane Crawford,
pictured above. The
Edmund Burke Acad
emy student made the
final cut in The True
Citizen’s annual Spooky
Story Contest and was
declared the champion
author by readers who
voted online for her
story, “Poppy Joe’s Graveyard.” As a reward for a
job well done, Papa’s Pizza to Go treated her entire
class to a pizza party yesterday (Tuesday). Ginny
Lane’s tale beat more than 100 other stories.
Appeal to stop concrete plant denied
By Anne Marie Kyzer
annemariek@thetruecitizen.com
The Burke County Board of Commissioners upheld a deci
sion that paves the way for a new concrete plant on River
Road.
Residents from the area near Rouse Lane where the plant
will be installed filed an appeal with the county commission
last week. They hoped commissioners would overturn a vari
ance approval, which was granted to Evans Concrete last
month by the Burke County Planning Commission.
Evans Concrete filed a request for the variance because the
property it plans to purchase is not wide enough to accommo
date the setbacks between the plant and property lines on ei
ther side as called for in county ordinances. They plan to
operate the plant for about four years during peak construc
tion at Plant Vogtle and then remove it. The plant will be
similar to Waynesboro Concrete, which the company already
operates on Davis Road.
Many homeowners in the area opposed plans for the plant,
stating that it would pose health hazards from dust, create
heavy truck traffic and be unsafe without a fence surrounding
it.
Donald and Sherry Herline, who live close to the site and
filed the appeal, wrote in a letter to commissioners that
suggestions of fencing the area and planting evergreens to
mitigate dust and provide a visual buffer were disqualified
by the planning commission and a company representative.
About a dozen of their neighbors signed a petition that was
turned in earlier by Rouse Lane resident Eddie Wells.
Planning commission chairman Lee Webster told com
missioners he understood residents’ concerns and that the
issues had been researched thoroughly, but he believed the
planning commission had made the right decision for the
county.
Allen DeLaigle, who represents the district where the plant
will be located, made a motion to overrule the variance
approval, but none of the other commissioners offered a
second.
Due to the absence of zoning in Burke County, Evans
Concrete only needed the variance approval to begin build
ing. Had it not needed the variance, the company could
have proceeded without area residents being notified.
With the variance affirmed, the company may move for
ward as planned.
Findell Johnson
COSt: $5 per canlie
Deadline: Dec.
$10 alter leadline
17th @ Noon