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THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL THURSDAY. AUGUST 13. 2009 — PAGE 3A County dept, heads shave their budgets By Margie Richards margie@mainstreetnews. com The whittling knife remains in action. Budget hearings contin ued last week, and county department heads continued to show up with reductions in their departments’ bottom lines for 2010. Commissioners met with information technol ogy director Gary Venable, E-911 director David Camp, Emergency Medical Services director Dwayne Patton and county clerk Linda Cox, who represented the county chairman office’s budget. And all four departments reduced their budgets collec tively by almost $175,000. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Finance director Kathy Clark told commissioners that Venable has taken 12 percent off his department’s bottom line for next year. The IT budget does include several line item increases, however, including replac ing three computers in the 911 office ($2,400) and five computers in the probate office ($4,000). Venable said the computers are all at the end of their life cycles. Venable’s total proposed budget for 2010 equals $211,269, a $29,000 reduction from the current budget. “Good job, Gary, good job,’’ District 2 commission er John Pethel said. E-911 The E-911 budget includes a $58,341 overall decrease for 2010. Camp did ask for a new GCIC tech/warrants clerk position, but pointed out that this request will not increase salary expenses. He told commissioners that long-time warrants clerk Ann Brooks is retiring by the end of the year and that he wants to combine that position with a GCIC tech position. Brooks cur rently makes $28,500 annu ally and Camp said the new combined position’s salary will be from $23,000 for a new employee to $26,600 for a current, experienced employee. “Either way we’re saving money,’’ Camp said, adding that the new position will also take a lot of stress off dispatchers. EMS The EMS budget has been reduced by $54,106 for 2010. Commissioners reviewed electricity payments for the four EMS stations, two of which are leased from fire departments. The annual bill for Hull is $3,618 and the annual bill for Danielsville (Station 1) is $5,843. Both Comer ($6,264) and Ila ($5,726) include invoices for both the EMS offices and the fire stations in which they are housed. Patton reported that there are currently 60 people on staff in the EMS depart ment. CHAIRMAN’S OFFICE County clerk Cox said the chairman’s office budget has been decreased by 14 per cent overall for next year, from $237,231 for 2009 to $204,004 for 2010. The chairman’s budget includes the salaries of chairman Anthony Dove, the clerk’s salary, human resources director Donna Sisk’s sal ary and half-time salary of Rhonda Wooten, who also works half-time in building inspections, and for stu dents who operate record ing equipment during BOC meetings. NEXT MEETING The BOC planned to hold another budget hearing Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 4 p.m. with the probate court, registrar’s office, the solid waste department, the rec reation department and the sheriff’s office. City of Carlton MUNICIPAL ELECTION The City of Carlton will hold municipal elections on November 3, 2009. The following offices are scheduled for election: Mayor: Incumbent: Rufus Kidd Term of office will begin on Jan. 1, 2010 and end Dec. 31, 2011. Council Member: Incumbent: Robert Tucker Term of office will begin on Jan. 1, 2010 and end Dec. 31, 2011. Council Member: Incumbent: David Seawright Term of office will begin on Jan. 1, 2010 and end Dec. 31, 2011. Council Member: Incumbent: Marty Tucker Term of office will begin on Jan. 1, 2010 and end Dec. 31, 2011. Council Member: Incumbent: Claudia Thornton Term of office will begin on Jan. 1, 2010 and end Dec. 31, 2011. Council Member: Incumbent: Myron Hedgelon Term of office will begin on Jan. 1, 2010 and end Dec. 31, 2011. Qualifying will begin on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. and will close on Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 4:30 p.m. at the Carlton City Hall/Fire Hall from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on September 1, 2009; September 2, 2009; and September 3, 2009. Section 21-2-131(a)(l)(A) of the State of Georgia Municipal Election Code requires a qualification fee of $48.75 for mayoral candidates and $32.50 for councilmember candidates. ( Apple Specialist Buy a Mac. Get a Free iPod' During our "Back-to-School Promotion" ■5 I We want to send you off to college in style. •Only if you qualify for an Apple Educational Discount Requires purchase of qualifying Mac Offer expires September 8,2009 or while supplies last Please see store for details. <r peachmac macs • ipods • software • service • business solutions 1850 Epps Bridge Pkwy (across from Lowe's) • Athens • 706-208-9990 visit peachmac.com • also in Augusta! I Ila Elementary School gains pre-K By Ben Munro ben@mainstreetnews.com Three of five Madison County elementary schools now offer pre-K with Ila Elementary gaining a program. Class could start in four to five weeks, according to the county school system central office. “We’re excited to get it,” Ila Elementary principal Lynne Jeffers said. “We just wish that we could have started when regular school started.” Ila now joins Hull-Sanford Elementary and Danielsville Elementary in offering pre-K. Madison County Schools Superintendent Mitch McGhee made the announcement at Tuesday night's school board meeting, fol lowing uncertainty over the sum mer as to whether Ila would land the program. “Originally, we were told ‘yeah, you're going to get it,’’’ McGhee wouldn’t mean your life, but maybe your dealership. “If somebody got a picture of them and it got out, a dealer could possibly lose his fran chise," Sorrells explained. The building is a little less shrouded in secrecy these days. In fact. Comer will begin a grant-funded transformation of this 100-year-old building into a museum later this year. Fittingly, the theme of the museum is the development of the automobile in the 20 th century. Work could start as early as September. The city accepted a $344,000 bid for the renovation and will send that paperwork to the DOT — the funding agent for the project — for the final OK. Comer sought a different approach when seeking this transportation grant, opting to honor the auto when most towns pay homage to the train. “You see a lot of towns look ing at railroad, railroad, rail- said. “And then over the summer they called and said ‘no, you're not going to get it.’” But Jeffers received confirma tion late Friday, the second day of school, that Ila would join the pre-K ranks. “It went topsy-turvy after that,” Jeffers said. Registration for the 20-student class runs through Aug. 19. Some students may have admis sion priority over others, based on a few factors: having siblings already enrolled at the school, living within the Ila attendance zone, gender (the class must have a certain number of boys and girls) and “other needs assistance.” After that, “names are pulled out of a hat,” Jeffers said. She hopes to inform parents by Aug. 21. Meanwhile, Ila and the school system work to ready to the class for its first day. The BOE approved personnel at Tuesday night’s meet ing to fill the new pre-K positions. McGhee said adding pre-K classes to elementary schools is one of the school system's goals. “That was part of the strategic plan,” he said. “That was part of the push in the county for early literacy.” Overall enrollment short, but some classes getting full Madison County's system-wide enrollment fell 120 students below projections when classes started Thursday. School leaders expect that gap to close, however. “We do have students continu ally flowing in,” McGhee said. “I’m sure we've made a lot of that up right now.” While system-wide numbers were down, student enrollment exceed projections at two cam puses: the Madison County High School Freshmen Academy and Hull-Sanford Elementary School. The system may also have to apply for waivers for a few elementary school grade classes close to reaching capacity. The potential list includes some kindergarten classes at Hull-Sanford Elementary and a fifth grade class at Colbert Elementary. The state puts a cap on the number of students per classroom, but does allow for exceptions — especially now. “We’ve been assured by the state in these economic times that waivers will be granted,” McGhee said. “We’re not quite there yet, but we feel like we will be having to ask for a waiver or two.” But for the most part, the back- to-school attendance was what school leaders expected “There's nothing really out of whack from what we thought we would be dealing with,” McGhee said. things we can do ... I think we’ve got some good ideas." The museum will offer more than history. Plans include a 17 x 11 con ference room. Among other things, this conference room would provide the city council private quarters to adjourn to during closed sessions. The museum’s open area is also 2,500 square feet, provid ing potential space for group meetings and presentations. The $344,000 bid is consid erably lower than the DOT’S grant total of $609,000, leaving money for other projects poten tially. But anything extra must fall within the scope of the original grant and be approved by the DOT. So for now, the focus right is turning this one-time clandes tine storage garage into some thing new. “The idea is to get the build ing where it can be a center- piece,” Sorrells said. Comer .cont’dfrom 1A road," Comer clerk and finance officer Steve Sorrells said. While trains were certainly an integral part of Comer’s history, the automobile played a big role in the city's development, too, Sorrells said. Not coincidently, the building selected has certainly seen its share of cars. But its history predates the auto. The building — which dates back to 1907 at least — once served as a livery stable where blacksmiths repaired horse shoes and harnesses and even provided temporary boarding for horses, Sorrells explained. Then came the car. In the roaring 20s, the build ing housed Ford Model-Ts sent to Comer via train. The dealer would uncrate them, perhaps performing minor reassembly there as well, before moving them to the showroom in town. But the building was perhaps never more important than it was in the 1950s and 1960s when it hid those coveted new Ford models. According Sorrells, the cars came into town covered up on the trucks and were kept under wraps at the building until the much-awaited unmasking. Reminders of the building’s top-secret past are still visible today. The plywood covering at the windows kept the cars from view of passers-by. “We were told that that’s the reason,” Sorrells said. More recently, the building served as the city’s mainte nance shop until a few years ago. Since then, it's sat empty in preparation for the renova tion. Once Comer receives the OK from the DOT to proceed, con struction crews have 240 days to finish the work, meaning a completion date in either April or May. As for what Comer might display in the museum, Sorrells said, “we’ve got some lines on Free Legal Consultation 1706) 546-7131 Adrian Pritchett, LLC • Bogart, Ga. Divorce cases can become complex, so final fees and results cannot be guaranteed. City of Danielsville QUALIFYING NOTICE For The November 2009 Election The City of Danielsville will hold a Municipal Election on Tuesday, November 3, 2009. The following offices are scheduled for election: The following seats are up for election, each with terms from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2011: Mayor - Incumbent: Walter Glenn Cross Council Member - Seat 1 - Incumbent: Philip Croya Council Member - Seat 1 - Incumbent: Barbara Dove Qualifying will begin Monday, August 31, 2009 and end on Friday, September 4, 2009 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Those wishing to qualify may do so during this time period at Danielsville City Hall. Qualifying fee for Mayor is $82.19; for Council Members $56.41. The State of Georgia Municipal Election Code sets the mandatory qualifying dates, times, and fees. The deadline to register to vote in the November 2009 election is October 5, 2009. You may register to vote at the Madison County Registrar’s office in the Madison County Government Complex in Danielsville or pick up a registration form at Danielsville City Hall. BANKS CO. ARCHERY CLUB Last 3D Archery Tournament of the Year ^1 Saturday August is, '• \\ Registration: 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. ntyarcheryc com en Bridge Boat rce, GA 30529 Call 706-335-4675 City of Colbert QUALIFYING AND ELECTION NOTICE Notice is hereby given - a Municipal Election will be conducted November 3, 2009, in the City of Colbert at the Colbert depot for the following offices: Mayor (Incumbent - John A. Waggoner) Councilperson (Incumbent - Chris Peck) Councilperson (Incumbent - Roger Fortson) All offices are for a two (2) year term beginning January 1, 2010, ending December 31, 2011. Those persons wishing to qualify for this election shall file notice of candidacy in the Colbert City Hall, 23 South 4th Street, Colbert, Ga., with the Election Superintendent on August 31, September 1 and September 2 between the hours of 8:30 am and 1:00 pm. The qualifying fee for Mayor is $111.20 and the fee for Councilperson is $45.20. Voter Registration forms may be picked up at Colbert City Hall or the Registrar’s Office, Danielsville Courthouse Complex in Danielsville, Ga. The completed form must be mailed or carried to the Registrar’s Office in Danielsville. The deadline for voter registration for the November, 2009 election is October 5, 2009. Business Hours: Registrar’s Office - Monday thru Friday 8 am - 5 pm Colbert City Hall - Monday thru Friday 8 am - 1 pm Early voting will begin October 13, 2009 and end October 30, 2009, in the Colbert City Depot during normal Colbert City Hall business hours. On election day November 3, 2009, the polls will be open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm in the same location.