About The Banks County news. (Homer, Banks County, Ga.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2011)
Wrestling: IB Mat Leopards take win at Morgan Co. School: 7 A BCMS students get riding lessons — www.BanksNewsTODAY.com — 50<t • Homer, Banks County, GA 30547 • A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. • 28 Pages, 3 Sections Plus Supplements • Vol. 44 No. 2 Development Authority Officials plan improvements at Banks Crossing BY SHARON HOGAN Banks County leaders are looking at ways to make improvements at Banks Crossing — espe cially the area around the former location of The Pottery. The Banks County Development Authority unanimously approved the Banks Crossing Redevelopment Plan contract with Tunnell- Spangler-Walsh & Associates, at last week's monthly meeting. The company will look at ways to make improvements at Banks Crossing. The contract calls for the work to be done in four phases. The total basic fee for the contract is $80,000, and this will be paid out as the phases are completed. Phase I will be data collection and analysis of existing conditions. Phase II is visioning, refine ment and draft plan. Phase in is the final redevel opment plan and overlay district. Phase IV will be the final phase, when the TSW team provides the printed and electronic final copies of the redevelop ment plan, final master plan marketing graphic and design guidelines document to be adopted as an overlay ordinance. Banks County Community Planner Brad Day said a large portion of Banks County’s sales tax and property tax comes from the Banks Crossing exit and a large number of retail sector jobs are located at the exit. OTHER BUSINESS In other business, the authority: •met in closed session for approximately 45 min utes to discuss land acquisition. No action was taken when the meeting was re-opened to the public. •discussed a strategic plan for 2012 that included product development, marketing and lead gen eration, existing industry and business licensing and event marketing, workforce development, recruit ment and incentive development. The group agreed to look over the proposed strategic plan and pri oritize the list at the January meeting. The authority agreed that some of the plans would be easy and inexpensive to complete, but others would be more costly and time consuming. The Development Authority’s next meeting is set for 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Jan. 17, in the Wilson Shoals Conference Room at the Banks County Courthouse Annex. V i U \ 1 LIVE NATIVITY IN ALTO The Alto Congregational Holiness Church held a live nativity and Christmas program over the weekend at Alto City Hall. Shown are: (L-R) Ricky Hill, William Brown, Tim Beasley, Stephen Sanders, Nicole Haynes, Austin Grier, Brett Armour and Jay Davis. See page 10B for more photos from the event. Photo by Randy Crump Lula council agrees to map contracts BY ERIN ROSSITER The Lula City Council approved several expenditures aimed at mapping out parts of the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which went online earlier this year. The city agreed at the council meeting Monday night to have the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission use its GIS and GPS technology to chart where the mainline runs from the old pond to the new plant, as well as document the location of the relative valves. The total cost for the projects is $820. “We know where everything is now,” Mayor Milton Turner said. “But as time goes on and everything is covered up, if we have this done, people here after us can walk right in and find it.” Additional mapping costs approved by the council dur ing its regular council meeting Monday included $160 for the commission to draw a redis tricting map in line with the 2010 census population shifts. Another contract was awarded for Lula’s projected annexa tion map. The commission will bill out at $80-an-hour, but the project will not exceed $1,000, the council decided. But city manager Dermis Bergin said he expected the estimate to come well below $1,000. The spending approvals were balanced by news of a check from the state for $38,160. The figure represents the sales tax reimbursement owed to Lula for costs associated with the new water treatment plant. Bergin said. OTHER BUSINESS In other business at the meet ing Monday night, the council: •welcomed the Rev. Scotty Poole, minister at Lula Assembly of Praise, who opened the meet ing with the invocation. continued on page 2A Inside i j 4 ■ I p ■SlX IT f J J -ll J a " L ' I m r ’.j ■O r IHi •One Civil War battle fought in Banks — page 5A OpZE • ‘Christmas memo ries’ — page 4A Other news Social - 5A Church — 11B Obituaries - 9A Public Safety - 6A Legal s -7-9B School -7-8A School board approves personnel changes BY SHARON HOGAN The Banks County Board of Education approved sev eral personnel items following a 40-minute closed session at Thursday’s meeting. The following were approved as classified new hires: Barbie King, bus monitor, remainder of 2011-12 school year; Susan Martin, bus driver, remainder of 2011-12 school year; and Lynn Tench, paraprofessional, remainder of 2011-12 school year. Family medical leave was approved for certified employee Patsy Payne, teacher at Banks County Elementary School. OTHER BUSINESS In other business at Thursday’s meeting, the board: •unanimously approved the following items as surplus property: laptops, desktops and monitors in the technology department; Ford F-350 truck with service bed, 1988 spe cial needs bus with lift, 1993 full-size bus, 1978 Chevrolet dump truck and tractor accessory/boom in the transportation department; and a Delfield reach-in cooler that doesn’t work in the school food nutrition department. •heard from finance director Mike Beasley. Beasley report ed revenues are at 24.2 percent and expenses are at 41.9 per cent so far this year. Beasley also reported the education local option sales tax check for November was $242,386. Clarification on civic center taxes An article in last week’s issue stated that about $775 in back taxes is owed on the civic center in Homer, located at 193 Sycamore Street. Bo Garrison said this week that the 50 percent of the taxes that are paid by the Herbert Garrison Estate have been paid in full. The taxes on the civic center are split among two families. Santa Claus to visit Homer park Friday Santa Claus will be in Homer on Friday, Dec. 23, at Veterans Memorial Park in down town. from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. before returning to the North Pole to bring back toys for boys and girls on Christmas Eve. Families are reminded to bring their cam eras. Santa will have candy for all of the children. The event will not be held if there is inclem ent weather. Check out area Christmas lights Christmas lights and scenes can be found in residences and businesses across Banks County. We will be listing addresses of holiday scenes for our readers to check out. If you would like to have your home or business listed, please call 706-367-2490 or e-mail angieeditor@aol.com. Locations to check out include: •Thomas Gailey, 1435 Hwy. 105. Baldwin, as well as his mother’s home directly across the street. •Kaye Pressley, 585 Henderson Road in Gillsville. •Downtown Homer. GAILEY HOMES LIGHT UP FOR THE HOLIDAYS The homes of Thomas and Pauline Gailey (1435 Hwy. 105, Baldwin) and Rubie Gailey (1438 Hwy. 105, Baldwin) are filled with lights and lots of Christmas scenes this holiday season. See more photos on page 12B. Photo by Randy Crump
