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THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. AUGUST 6. 2009 — PAGE 3A
Commissioners open budget talks
Comer approves bid
on museum project
The Comer City Council approved a bid Monday for the
renovation of a historic downtown structure that will serve as
the Comer Travel Museum and Welcome Center.
The council approved a contract with Phillips Brothers
Contracting, Inc. for $344,000 to renovate the building located
adjacent to 70 Highway 72 East, Comer.
In 2006, the city was awarded $605,928 in Transportation
Enhancement (TE) program funds to be used for the travel
museum.
In other business Monday, the council agreed to allow Mike
Allen to use the upper ball field at Arnold Park as the home
field for his 14-15 age baseball team.
They heard from Uwe Happek, who requested that the
council review an erosion problem on the lot just west of his
residence.
They moved next month’s meeting to Sept. 14, at 6 p.m. to
avoid the Labor Day Holiday.
The council discussed including additional patrol and speed
bumps on Clover Avenue to curtail speeding. They authorized
Mayor William Burroughs to negotiate the purchase of a golf
cart. They met in closed session to discuss personnel.
Colbert to survey
cemetery expansion
By Margie Richards
margie@mainstreetnews.com
County commissioners
began the 2010 budget review
process last Wednesday, start
ing off by tackling potential
“in-house” raises by depart
ment heads.
District 2 commissioner
John Pethel proposed a freeze
on all employee wages next
year due to the expected rev
enue shortfall, and fellow
board members supported
the idea, voting Monday to
implement the measure.
District 3 commissioner
Mike Youngblood told the
board he feels they need
to move to stop “in-house”
raises, those sometimes given
by department heads with
budget money left over from
their departmental budgets.
“We’re going to have to pull
it (extra funding) out (of their
budgets), because if one does
it, all of them will do it,”
Youngblood said. He pro
posed chopping out any extra
funding or “padding” for
unforeseen expenditures in
department budgets this year.
And he told finance officer
Kathy Clark that he’d like to
be informed of any changes
in salary by any department
head, including constitutional
officers, from this point on.
District 5 commissioner
Bruce Scogin agreed with
Youngblood, saying there
should be no pay increase
Thirty seven Madison
County properties are adver
tised in this week’s paper for
the September foreclosure sale,
down from a record high of 50
for August.
across the board for county
employees this year.
“My concern is to maintain
jobs,” Scogin said. “And I
think we’ve done a wonder
ful job maintaining people so
far ... It’s important for us to
impress on these department
heads that if we can maintain
jobs, and bring this in under
budget, we’ll have accom
plished a miracle, maybe not
a major one, but a miracle.”
District 1 commissioner
Stanley Thomas said one
problem seems to be that
when a department head has
a vacancy in their office for a
period of time, they feel they
have extra funds for raises for
their other employees.
“The reality is that’s an
increase from here on out,
not just for that year - this is
a long-term commitment (to
those employees),” Thomas
said.
Scogin said department
heads need to hold their bud
gets down to a bare minimum
of what they need. Thomas
agreed.
“If they need it (more fund
ing) they can come back
before us and we can take
it out of contingency,” said
Thomas.
The discussion followed
the board’s first commission
hearing with several depart
ment heads, including the
magistrate court, tax commis
sioner and clerk of court.
Commissioners praised
Through the first nine
months of 2009, 261 foreclo
sures have been advertised in
The Madison County Journal.
In 2008, there were 260 fore
closures advertised, up from
magistrate judge Harry Rice,
who cut his operating expens
es by 7.5 percent, 2.5 percent
more than the requested five
percent. But Rice did ask for
raises for his employees, say
ing he would be doing them
an injustice by not asking.
“I think that’s exemplary,
Scogin said of Rice’s budget
cuts.
Pethel agreed.
“He’s done a good job on
his (budget),” he said.
And commissioners had
similar comments for clerk of
court Michelle Strickland.
“I think you do a very good
job with your department,”
said Pethel.
But commissioners had
questions for tax commission
er Louise Watson, who gave
her employees a slight raise
in January. Watson explained
that she gave former sheriff’s
employee Missy Collier the
same salary ($ 11.15 per hour)
that she had been making at
the sheriff’s office, instead of
the $10.75 per hour usually
given to new employees in
her office. She also raised the
salary of two other employ
ees with experience to match
Collier’s salary “to be fair to
everyone.”
Commissioner Thomas
pointed out that the board had
just told Judge Rice that there
would be no wage increases.
“You understand our point of
view,” Thomas said.
Youngblood said that Collier
150 in both 2006 and 2007.
At the current pace, Madison
County will end 2009 with 348
foreclosures advertised.
While the foreclosure sales
are advertised in the newspa-
knew “when she went to work
for an elected official, she
knew she might not be there
in four years.”
“In my opinion, you should
have hired her in as a new
employee, if you did that
we wouldn’t be in this,” said
Youngblood.
Scogin added: “If someone
quits a job over hurt feel
ings in this day and age, they
didn’t want it.”
Watson said she will use
monies left in her 2009 budget
to bring in a former employee
after hours to help process tax
payments when 2009 tax bills
become due and also plans
to bring in another part-time
person with tax experience so
that she can devote time for a
tax sale.
A sale of delinquent proper
ties has not been held since
2004 due to the ongoing tax
digest situation in the asses
sors’ office, Watson said. She
said of the more than 100 par
cels put up for sale in 2004,
only three actually went to
sale.
She said 90.69 percent of
the 2008 taxes have been col
lected.
“There have been more
people late this year than have
ever been late before,” she
said.
Commissioners plan to hold
a second budget meeting with
five more department heads
today (Thursday), Aug. 6,
beginning at 4:30 p.m.
per, not all homes will nec
essarily be sold through the
foreclosure process. Mortage
holders could still settle with
lenders before the property is
sold at the courthouse steps.
By Ben Munro
ben@mainstreetnews.com
With the Colbert cemetery
quickly running out of space
in its current configuration,
the city council is proceeding
with plans for major expan
sion of its memorial grounds.
Colbert leaders have OK’d
$12,500 for the surveying of
lots and streets for a new
2.5-acre section which would
add 225-250 plots to the cem
etery.
The existing cemetery has
less than 10 plots left unsold.
“We’re getting to the point
where we need to do some
thing,” Mayor John Waggoner
said.
The city hired Ray Wood
for the surveying job and will
pay half of his fee out of this
year’s budget and the rest out
of next year’s funds.
The new portion has already
been cleared and grassed.
Waggoner recommended
Wood for the surveying job,
noting that he also performed
surveying for Colbert 10
years ago.
“When you go to dealing
with this kind of stuff with
surveyors, in my opinion you
need to go with somebody
you know,” Mayor Waggoner
said.
Any public works job under
$20,000 doesn’t have to be
bid.
An alternative was to survey
half of the new section now,
— See ‘Colbert’ on 7A
Sept, foreclosures still high, but down from Aug.
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