Newspaper Page Text
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fiV
Reporter
October 29, 2008
Limbo? City again delays hiring administrator
BY JOLEE VAUGHN
It is almost November,
and Forsyth’s city council
still hasn’t named a city
administrator. Two months
ago, the council named two
finalists for the position.
But it seems that city
council members are still
not ready for a vote.
At the Oct. 21 meeting,
the review of the candi
dates was once again on
the agenda, and once again
it was tabled. Council
member Rosemary Walker
made the motion to table
the discussion, prompting
Mayor Tye Howard to ask,
“Why?”
Walker responded, “We
need more information.”
Council members voted 5-1
to table the review of can
didates with James
Calloway being the one
opposing vote.
The finalists are Russell
Thompson, a 28-year-old
planner and special proj
ects manager for the city of
Milledgeville, and 49-year-
old Camilla Johnson
Moore, a Forsyth native
who retired last year as
the director of the Fulton
County office of housing,
community and economic
development.
The vote was first put off
in early September due to
absences by several council
members. The review was
then tabled again at the
Oct. 7 meeting so they
could do a background
check. City council mem
ber Mike Dodd has said
he’s unhappy that council
didn’t have more input in
the selection process.
Mayor Howard asked the
Regional Development
Center in Macon to help
cull the applications, and
Dodd said they didn’t even
see those resumes until the
RDC gave them the names
of the finalists.
But Howard has replied
that the city’s administra
tive committee was up to
speed on the process.
The city has been without
a city administrator for
about four years, and a
new mayor and three new
council members were
elected last November on a
promise to hire one. City
clerk Janice Hall has been
the acting city administra
tor in the interim.
In other news:
The council finalized its
decision to keep the prop
erty tax rate for the City of
Forsyth at 5.75 mills. The
city expects an increase of
$55,904 in revenue due to
the re-evaluation of proper
ty values.
The rate was approved at
the Oct. 21 city council
meeting after the third and
final public hearing was
held at 6:30 p.m. that same
evening.
City OKs alcohol for Ensign House fund-raiser
BY JOLEE VAUGHN
Alcohol can be served at a
fundraiser for Save-a-Pet at the
Ensign House in Forsyth, the
city council decided last Tuesday.
Save-a-Pet, a non-profit civic
organization, applied for a tem
porary permit to serve alcohol at
a Dec. 13 event at the Ensign
House located at 88 Indian
Springs Drive.
The Ensign House is located
near First Baptist Church, and
city law says alcohol cannot be
served within 300 feet of a
church or school. A city worker
measured and found that the
house is 335 ft. from the church,
meaning it was far enough away
under the ordinance. After a
short discussion over the meas
urements, city council members
voted 5-1 to grant a temporary
pouring license. Council member
James Calloway was the one
opposing vote.
On May 6 of this year city
council voted 5-1 not to relax
Chapter 4 of the city code
(Alcoholic Beverages). The city
code states that a venue “must
be more than 300 feet from a
church or school, the distance to
be determined by measuring
along the curb or out edge of the
sidewalk from the entrance of
the selling establishment to the
nearest entrance of a church or
school.”
Who lost Camellia water permit?
One of the questions for county commis
sion chairman candidates at the Oct. 16
debate was about plans for the Plant
Camellia water treatment facility on the
Ocmulgee River near Juliette.
The Monroe County Development
Authority bought the plant in 2005 with
county commissioners hoping to use the
plant for its water system. However, the
county failed to retain an EPD permit
that would have allowed it use water from
the nearby Ocmulgee River.
Incumbent commission chairman Harold
Carlisle told the debate audience on Oct.
16 that he didn’t want to point fingers but
he understood that the attorney handling
the case had turned it back in to the
state. Carlisle said he intentionally didn’t
name the attorney because that was
something he’d been told. A story in last
week’s Reporter inferred in parenthesis
that Carlisle was talking about his oppo
nent Vaughn, who used to be the develop
ment authority attorney.
But development authority chairman
Barry Peters called the Reporter to say
that Vaughn didn’t do that. Current devel
opment authority attorney Charlie
Haygood said he didn’t handle the case
either. Haygood said the authority left it
to the county commissioners to handle the
due diligence on the EPD permit.
A request to the county commission
office to find out what happened to the
permit wasn’t answered by presstime.
The authority has sold the buildings and
land around the water treatment plant
and Carlisle said he’d favor selling the
plant as well.
Schools: Distrist lines not ready yet
Monroe County schools
won’t let parents see a
draft of the new elemen
tary school district lines —
- yet.
As reported in the Oct. 22
paper, the school district
plans to present a draft of
the new district lines to
the school board at its Nov.
11 meeting. The system
plans to open K.B. Sutton
Elementary School on Hwy.
83 next August. That
requires the school system
to carve the county into
three school districts
instead of two, for Sutton,
T.G. Scott and Hubbard.
Thus, many of the system’s
3,900 elementary age stu
dents will be assigned to
new schools.
At the school board’s Oct.
14 meeting,
Superintendent Anthony
Pack told school board
members they could come
by the board office at their
convenience to see the
draft proposal of the dis
trict lines. Asked whether
that means the school
board would be voting on
the district lines Nov. 11,
school board member
Tammy Fletcher said she
wasn’t sure. But she told
the Reporter last Monday
that parents who want to
see the district proposal
could also call the board
office to set up an appoint
ment.
However, Pack told the
Reporter last Friday they
aren’t ready for the public
to see the maps yet. He
said the school system is
letting board members see
the district lines first to
have their own input
before presenting a final
draft. Then, the board will
decide whether to move
forward or go back to the
drawing board.
Once the board settles on
a draft, then it will likely
be made available to the
public before a final vote is
taken, said Pack.
So parents may get their
first look at the school dis
trict plans at the 7 p.m.
board meeting on Tuesday,
Nov. 11 at the board office
on Brooklyn Avenue.
Correction
A story in the Oct. 15 Reporter, “Vaughn has
big money lead,” contained an error. A
$200 donation to commission chairman
challenger James Vaughn should have
been listed from Hugh Cromer Sr., not phar
macist Hugh Cromer Jr.
A story in the Oct. 15 Reporter “Forsyth
native: Knows where county line ferry was,”
contained an error. It reported that Minnie
Smith said she knew where the Turrentine
Ferry was that marked the Monroe-Bibb
county line. Mrs. Smith said the ferry she
remembers was called the Dames Ferry
and that she doesn’t know if it was the
same ferry used in 1822 to mark the bound
ary.
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