Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

PACE 2A THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008 PUBLIC HEARING The Banks County Board of Commissioners held a public hearing on the proposed Comprehensive Plan at Tuesday's meeting, July 22. Adele Kushner (second from left) and Larry Long (third from left) addressed the commissioners about the proposed plan. Also shown are (L to R): newly- elected BOC chairman Hilton Dalton, development authority chairman Wayne Abernathy, county clerks Erin Decker and Jenni Gailey, BOC chairman Gene Hart, and tax commissioner Margaret Ausburn. Photo by Sharon Hogan Hearing held on county comprehensive plan Commissioners select landscaping firm BY SHARON HOGAN Several Banks County residents spoke to the Banks County Board of Commissioners about the county’s comprehensive plan at the public hearing on Tuesday, July 22. The county staff, along with Lee Walton, MacTec Engineering, have been working on the comprehensive plan for several months. The com munity agenda has been developed and is available on the Banks County website for public viewing. BOC chairman chairman Gene Hart and commissioner Rickey Cain voted to approve the resolu tion for the comprehensive plan. Commissioner Joe Barefoot was absent from Tuesday's meeting. Walton said the community agen da will be submitted to the Georgia Mountains Regional Development Commission and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. The plan is to adopt the comprehen sive plan in October, Walton said. Larry Long, Forestar Real Estate Group, said: “Even though the econ omy has slowed down, a lot of people are looking at land in Banks County.” Long said his group owns about 6,000 acres total located all over Banks County, as well as about 1,000 acres in the Martin Bridge Road area of the county. One of the group’s concerns is the area around the Martin Bridge Road area. “We think whoever builds in the Martin Bridge Road area should be held to higher standards,” he said. Residential is not allowed in that area at the current time. Long said. “You want people to live in close proximity to where they work,” Long said. Long asked the commissioners to consider having mixed types of development in the Martin Bridge Road area. Long said planning was needed to designate uses in that area. “We would like to see retail, office, distribution and residential all in that area,” Long said. Long also discussed the types of signage that should be allowed in the Martin Bridge Road area. “We want to see monument-type signage in the Martin Bridge Road area, not just pole signage,” he said. Long also said a parallel road should be included in the transporta tion element of the comprehensive plan for the Martin Bridge Road area. “Once you do a good plan for that area, it can be used as a marketing tool for that area,” he said. Long also said the Forestar Group felt like the Hudson River in Banks County is an important amenity for the county. “It can be used as an amenity, not just a buffer,” Long said. Banks County resident Adele Kushner asked the commissioners for a copy of the comprehensive plan that is being submitted to the RDC and DCA. Kushner said she had missed most of the previous meetings on this issue. Walton encouraged those in atten dance to send in written comments about the comprehensive plan over the next 45 days. “Written comments will be very helpful,” he said. BY SHARON HOGAN Banks County Board of Commission Chairman Gene Hart and commissioner Rickey Cain chose the landscaping firm to han dle work at the new annex building and at the courthouse at Tuesday’s meeting, July 22. Representatives from two firms were interviewed at the meeting prior to approval. County administrative assistant Angela Sheppard said the county had requested proposals from land scaping firms based on what the county had budgeted to spend on the project. “The county put out a bid amount to be spent on this and did not do the low bid-type thing on this,” Sheppard said. Hart and Cain approved Tiger Landscaping, Braselton, to do the job. Trevis Richardson, owner, pre sented the county with a total cost of $73,470 for landscaping at both buildings. Steve Hausman, Southeastern Landscape Corporation, Hoschton, presented a cost of $74,760 to the county. Cain made the motion to go with Tiger Landscaping, upon approval of the references Richardson pre- BY MARK BEARDSLEY What a difference a month makes. Thirty days ago, officials predict ed that Banks-Jackson-Commerce Medical Center would end its 2007-08 fiscal year $124,000 in the black. But on Monday, Finance Director Bill Williams put the year-end esti mate at $197,000 in the red — a number he said could climb with audit adjustments. “We had more bad debt, $650,000, and charity care, $150,000 in June,” Williams explained. “We had a much worse month in June than we anticipated.” Williams expects the explosion of un-reimbursed healthcare to con tinue. He increased the amount bud geted for bad debt and charity care in the 2008-09 fiscal year, which began July 1, by two percent, to 12 percent. “It’s hitting all the hospitals,” said Williams. “We are in an economic slump. People are losing their jobs and losing their health insurance. I don’t see an end to it right now: it sented. “I like some of the things included in his plan that are not on the other plan,” Cain said. Both representatives told the com missioners that the landscape plans presented were low maintenance. Both agreed to provide assistance with the watering schedule and other maintenance questions. Richardson said, “We will come by at least once a week for at least eight weeks to keep a check on everything.” The county plans to start land scaping at the new annex building around August 1. The move to the new building is planned for mid- August. OTHER BUSINESS In other business at Tuesday’s meeting the commissioners: •approved spending $8,060 to purchase software for the tax com missioner's office. The software will enable Banks County residents to pay property taxes online. The software will be purchased from Taylor Business Services, Statesboro. Tax commis sioner Margaret Ausburn said, “We want to get this up and running will get worse before it gets better.” Williams and CEO Jim Yarborough told the BJC Medical Center Authority Monday that a “disturbing trend” shows a substantial increase in “self-pay” customers — some thing of a misnomer because most of them don’t pay. Most of that — Yarborough esti mated two-thirds — is coming through the Emergency room where people come for treatment of non emergency cases. That trend could force the hospital to screen patients and either reject or demand payment in advance for those seeking treatment that doesn’t qualify as “emergency,” Williams and Yarborough said. For the past fiscal year, bad debt was up almost $2 million to $5.3 million — 58 percent — while char ity care was up almost $500,000 to $1.24 million. The good news was that gross rev enue was also up $7 million to $59.5 million and contractual adjustments amounted to 41 percent of that - down two percent over the previous by the time the 2008 tax bills hit the mail. The assessments are out now.” Cain said, “I don’t have a problem with this. This is already in your budget. I don’t want us to fall behind on this.” •approved an additional charge of $3,346 on the lighting contract for the annex building with Georgia Power. The additional charge is to cover the cost of placing light poles on both sides of the street out to the annex building. •approved Hart to sign the annu al Legacy Link FY2009 Nutrition Contract. The contract is $118,911 county non-match local resources contract. •approved Hart to sign the annu al Family Connection FY2009 Contract for $50,000. •agreed to surplus some of the courthouse furniture and furnish ings that will not be moved to the new facility. A complete list of the items that will be available can be viewed at the courthouse or on the county’s website at www.co.banks. ga.us. The county plans to hold a public sale at the courthouse on these items. A date and time will be announced later. year, and a good trend, Yarborough pointed out. Overall, however, the hospital collected just over 50 cents for every dollar of service rendered. The report projects that the hos pital has cash on hand equal to only one day’s operating expenses. However, a $204,000 payment from Medicaid is expected soon. Final figures for the 2007-08 fiscal year won’t be ready until the year- end audit is completed. The auditors have been at the medical center for a week gathering the data. SOME GOOD NEWS In other business, the author ity signed a contract with Ellis Pain Management to operate a pain man agement practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the medical center’s “specialty clinic.” That contract brings to five the number of spe cialty services located in the facil ity, which is off Old U.S. 441 near Hospital Road. “With them, we have doctors in there every day of the week, Monday through Friday,” Williams pointed out. Budget, water concerns topics at Maysville retreat BJC Medical expected to end year in the red BY JUSTIN POOLE The 2009 budget, water con cerns, sewer issues and downtown development were all part of the discussion during a Maysville City Council retreat. The council held the retreat at Unicoi State Park in Helen Saturday. The council agreed that the retreat was beneficial and another retreat has tentatively been scheduled for October 18 in Maysville. Discussion about the 2009 bud get was the first subject on the list of items that the council reviewed. Mayor Jerry Baker said that despite being slightly over budget in a few areas, mainly fuel costs, the budget overall is good. One concern raised was the income paid into the city by resi dents using city water and other utilities. Council member Stephan Lewis commented that it is a bad time to be in the water business due to drought conditions. One possible solution for the city would allow WastePro to collect its own billing for trash pickup. “We are losing money,” Baker said. “We are paying it out if we get paid or not. If they pick up and move, we are stuck with the [bill]. In the upcoming year, we have got to be very careful with this bud get, because if we [do not have] customers that are paying we are going to be in the red.” On another matter related to WastePro, the council discussed the status of the promised recy cling bins and the contract. Besides a few issues with the initial change in service, the WastePro service has been received well by resi dents. Other matters discussed on the budget ranged from local busi nesses and Community Bank & Trust coming into the city to the funds available for streetlights. On the matter of streetlights, the initial estimated cost would be $8,000. Clay Dorsey said, “Number one, it should have been developer’s responsibility. We can change that for the future, but cannot do any thing about the past. Developers should be responsible for initial cost, after that homeowners should $ 5 00 OFF Ticket Of s 2Cr° Or More. Valid with coupon Mon.-Thurs. only. La Hacienda Commerce La Hacienda Braselton 173 Steven B. Tanger Blvd. 5391 Highway 53 706-335-7458 706-654-0070 | The Original Mexican Restaurant! Not affiliated with any other restaurant. | 66 ROOF DOCTOR Roofing & Repair 99 - Metal - Shingles - Flat Roofs - Flashing - Maintenance - Inspections HOMER CARVER OFFICE 706-677-1986 CELL 678-617-4503 FAX 706-677-1369 decide if they want to cover it.” The council seemed to favor imposing future developers with the cost of putting in the lights, while addressing key safety areas as it becomes feasible. The council also spent time dis cussing the following topics: •fuel costs from the police depart ment and the water department’s dip into the red caused the council to discuss adding funds to cover the cost of fuel while maintain ing the departments conservation methods. •the need for personnel for the police department, Downtown Development Authority, library and a Class III operator required by the EPD. •city property and proposed uses involving public parking and city parks. •status of various buildings in downtown and city owned proper ties. •water concerns focused on the drilling of wells to supply the city and the ways to cover the cost of monitoring consumption. Back to School Safety Awareness event set Aug. 2 A Back to School Safety Awareness Day will be held at Wal-mart at Banks Crossing on August 2 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot. The agencies that will be involved will be Banks County Fire & EMS, Banks County Sheriff’s Office, Commerce Police Dept, and the BJC receives help in recent purchases BJC Medical Center got help from two sources recently for equipment purchases. The BJC Medical Center Auxiliary voted to spend $7,000 to purchase two “Data scope Vital Signs” machines for the Northeast Wing of the hospital. Some $1,245 it made on its Christmas In July Jewelry Sale went towards the purchase. Also, the Hospital Foundation agreed to spend $12,500 for a blad der scanner for the hospital. Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. “We will have lots of different events for the kids to participate in such as face painting and a moon walk,” organizers said. “We will have the fire safety house on hand for the kids to go through and see what it would be like if their house catches on fire. We will have ambulances, fire trucks and a lad der truck on hand. Sparky, the fire dog, will be making an appearance for all the kids to see. We will also have child ID kits to give to all the kids.” All events will be free. For more information, contact Mark Savage at 706-367-6037. COMING SOON ^Christian OOKSTORE & COFFEEHOUSE 417 Pottery Factory Drive • Commerce, GA Right behind Zaxby’s www.booksncaffeine.com Banks County Commissioners PUBLIC NOTICE The Banks County Commissioners will adopt the FY 2009 Budget at the Commissioners meeting on August 12, 2008 at 6:30 in the Courtroom of the Banks County Courthouse. Banks County Commissioners BUDGET HEARINGS & MEETINGS The Banks County Commissioners will hold a public hearing on July 31, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. in the conference room of the Banks County Courthouse. The purpose of the hearing is for public review and input on the FY 2009 budget. O O' Vo? 1 o o\ O _ O) )0 Oc Grove Recreation Announces: SOCCER REGISTRATION When: Saturday, August 2 & 9 9:00 am -1:00 pm Where: Grove Level Baptist Recreational Building Cost: $45 per child Age Groups: 4-6, 7-9, & 10-12 Registration is open to the public. Contact: David Vaughn - 706-652-3742 david.vaughn@grovelevel.com \o_o, ' ,Og/ ioo\ ?o?i jO o) Wt lo o )0 0 ioo jO O' -O On /O O' )OOt (o Oh «OOf