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THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 17. 2009 — PAGE 3A County budget to drop 5.4% County commissioners will officially approve numbers Thurs. Tax breakdown: So you’ve paid $1,000 in property taxes. Where does that money go? State $8 Elections $.42 Streets and roads $30.47 Schools $572 Registrar $2.15 Health dept. $.45 IDA $30 Tax commissioner $8.59 DFACS $.79 County gov’t $390 Tax assessor $8.29 Senior center $7.40 Buildings/grounds $4.25 Board of education $.90 County gov’t Superior Court $6.51 Extension office $.42 distribution Clerk of Superior Court $9.30 Recreation $17.14 General gov’t $18.77 District attorney $.97 Madison County Library Contingency $10.08 Magistrate court $5.61 $4.76 Governing body $4.40 Probate court $6.08 Forestry resources $.10 District 1 $.05 Juvenile $2.86 Building inspection $4.31 District 2 $.05 Sheriff $43.33 Planning and zoning commis- District 3 $.05 Jail $34.66 sion $.47 District 4 $.11 CHAMPS $1.62 Planning/zoning administra- District 5 $.05 Emergency management tion $2.75 Chairman $.16 $19.56 Code enforcement $2.80 Administration $6.71 Coroner $.90 Chamber of Commerce $.29 Finance $5.11 Animal shelter $2.13 Solid waste $18.18 IT $5.74 Vehicle R/M $14.44 E911 $24.34 By Zach Mitcham zach@mainstreetnews.com Madison County’s budget will be down 5.4 percent in 2010. It’s the second straight year com missioners have whittled down the budget, with operating costs at $15 million in 2008, $14.48 million in 2009 and down to $13.69 million in 2010 — a nine percent drop between 2008-2010. BOC members will officially approve next year’s budget Thursday (today) at 6:30 p.m. The group spent months discussing 2010 budget numbers, reviewing line items to look for potential cuts. Commissioners agreed to cut holi day employee pay in half for county employees in 2010, but the board avoided layoffs and kept the tax rate steady. The BOC held a public hearing on the budget Dec. 10, but no citi zens spoke on the matter. The board received a handout that night from the county finance office that offers a breakdown of how $1,000 of tax money is distributed in the county. (See box for the list.) Commissioners praised the job that new chairman Anthony Dove and the finance staff did in preparing the 2010 budget. ‘Tve been on the board 10 years and not one time have we had this kind of smooth budget process," said Commissioner Bruce Scogin. Commissioner John Pethel said the board has never had the kind of financial information it had during this year’s budget planning. Commissioner Mike Youngblood agreed, saying that he considered not running during the past election. “I’m glad I jumped back in this thing,” said Youngblood. Dove said preparing the 2010 budget was “a team effort." "But we’re not out of this thing yet," said Dove of the hard times financially. Comer flip flops on zoning amendment By Zach Mitcham zach@mainstreetnews .com Comer leaders rejected a pro posed zoning ordinance amend ment 3-0 Dec. 7 after two citizens spoke in opposition. Later that night, after the opponents left, the council unanimously approved the amendment. The zoning change pertains to guidelines on haunted houses and special events. Two years ago, the city of Comer and developer Tim Seymour battled in the Georgia Supreme Court over a 1999 zon ing code that the city argued prevented special events in resi dential areas. Seymour opened a haunted house in the city in 2007 near Halloween, drawing a crowd of 400 and raising just under $2,500 the first weekend. The state Supreme Court ulti mately ruled months later that the argument over whether Seymour could operate the haunted house was a moot point because Halloween had passed. However two justices on the Supreme Court dissented from the majority ruling, saying the matter was not a moot point. "Halloween occurs every year," the dissent said. “And if Seymour decides to have another haunted house at the same location as his 2007 haunted house, any attempt by the city to enjoin Seymour’s efforts would be barred ... in light of the trial court’s prior ruling...” Comer zoning administrator Jim Baird recently presented a zoning amendment to the city council to address special events. "The proposed amendment will give the city some solid ground on which to stand if there are further flagrantly defiant acts in connection with haunted house type events,” wrote Baird in his memo to the council about the amendment. Baird said the change allows the city to take action in case a future haunted house is pro posed. "Seymour’s defense in court was to cite numerous examples of other apparent business opera tions on residential lots," wrote Baird in an explanation of the amendment to The Journal. "I sought to allow the city to cite him for operating a special event without a permit instead of the more general zoning citation of business in a res(idential) zone.” Comer residents Scott Callaway and Beth McMickle, wife of mayor-elect David McMickle, both spoke in opposition of the zoning amendment Dec. 7. "I thought the language in the ordinance was sufficient and it seemed pointed towards a sin gle member of the community,” said Callaway, chairman elect of the Royal Oaks Homeowners’ Association in Comer. “We as a community organization had questions about how this would affect us, and their response was unclear. We were told as long as we didn’t charge an admis sion fee or invite people into our homes, we could hold a ‘haunted house’ in our neighborhood and it would not be necessary to obtain a special permit. It would be con sidered a private party.” After Callaway and others spoke, the council voted 3-0 to deny the amendment. Councilman Kevin Booth abstained from the vote. Booth said the council needed to stand by Baird's zoning deci sion. "The man over our zoning (Baird) had went through and made it (the recommendation on the zoning amendment), and I think it's only fair if we hire him to kind of take knowledge of what he does and be decent about it," said Booth. “He had that request to change it that way and that's the way we done ... The way we thought about it is, it's stupid to hire somebody, and he goes through the zoning and does something, and then we vote against him, when I think what he was doing was legitimate." Later in the meeting, after the citizens left, the council decided to reconsider the matter, though a second discussion of the zon ing amendment wasn’t on the agenda. The group then voted 4-0 to approve the amendment. "I think on that first vote they (council members who voted against the amendment) were just trying to make a few people happy," said Booth. NOW OPEN COLBERT PAWN SHOP West 4th Avenue • Colbert, GA Beside Peachy Clean Car Wash/K&B Mini Storage Barry Flurer, Owner/Operator Hours of Operation: Mon., Tues., Thurs. & Fri. 9-5; Sat. 9-1; Closed - Wed. & Sun. Royal Oaks residents seek schedule for debris pickup By Zach Mitcham zach@mainstreetnews.com Scott Callaway of Royal Oaks Subdivision in Comer said he just wants to know when city workers will be by to pick up leaf and limb debris in the neighborhood. He doesn't understand why the city council doesn’t want to set a schedule for the service. “I just want to know when to put the debris by the curb,’ ’ said Callaway, the chairman-elect of the Royal Oaks Homeowners Association, add ing that leaving debris by the road for extended periods creates an eyesore. But council members say providing a schedule isn’t so easy. “It’s very hard to set a schedule when we only have two workers,” said councilman Kevin Booth. “And if we have a water line that breaks, a street that’s messed up or anything that happens, we can’t stop to go pick up limbs.” Booth said the city picked up debris twice in Royal Oaks in October. “And some of the other people had to do without,” said Booth. "The fair way to be is to start the truck and go down the road. You ain’t got any out when they go by, you have to wait till the next time. I mean we can't make special trips.” Booth said they could schedule a day in the month for debris pickup. “We could schedule say a first Tuesday of the month, provided noth ing else happens, but if something else happens, we won’t go pick up limbs if something major is going on,” said Booth. The councilman said there are some people who take advantage of the debris pickup. “We picked up a pile the other day was 10 by 10 by 10, a 10-foot high pile," said Booth. “If you got a few limbs out there, that's no problem, but some people do abuse it.” Callaway said the debris pickup issue was presented to the council about nine months ago. He said he doesn't have a problem with the council setting a day for pickup and then having workers set the task aside in the case of an emergency. For instance, if a water line broke in the city on the day of the debris pickup, those workers should address that, but then pick up the debris the day after the issue is resolved. “I don’t live my life in fear of a natural disaster," said Callway. "I schedule my dentist appointment and if something happens I resched ule it.” The council will meet at 2 p.m. Monday to discuss the city budget, as well as the leaf and limb pickup policy. Callaway said that he doesn’t know if anyone from the subdivision will be able to make that meeting since it’s being held early on a Monday afternoon. New Comer mayor to hold reception Comer’s mayor-elect David McMickle, and his wife Beth, will host a “Meet Your Mayor” reception from 4-6 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 9, at Blue Bell Gallery in Comer. “I look forward to this opportunity to meet the citizens of Comer, Mayor-elect McMickle said. “I hope that all our resi dents will take the time to attend the reception and allow me to hear their concerns.” The Madison County Journal is your source for local news. Call 706-795-2567 to subscribe. of Commerce 5 00 0FF Ticket Of‘2CP° 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 |^T/ie Original Mexican Restaurant! Not affiliated with any other restaurant j MCHS working on proposed schedule overhaul By Ben Munro ben@mainstreetnews.com If approved, a new scheduling system at Madison County High School would expand students' course loads to seven classes and shorten instruction periods. Principal Chad Stone will present a plan for a modified seven-period schedule to the Madison County Board of Education (BOE) in January. The school board, which will also hold a Jan. 7 work session to discuss the proposed change, plans to vote on the schedule in February. "Our staff is really excited about it," Stone said. “Most of them are. We've still got a lot of things we’ve got to work out.” Superintendent Mitch McGhee notified the BOE last week that MCHS was considering this change. Madison County High School, which currently operates on a block schedule (four 90-minute classes a day per semester, then four differ ent classes the next semester), based these changes on a recent tour of Morgan County High School, which utilizes a modified, seven-period schedule. "We saw what they were doing down there, and they're doing a good job,” Stone said. "And we took the gist of what they were doing and spun it into something for us.” Under the proposal, students would attend seven, 52-minute classes Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. On Tuesday, students would attend their four odd-numbered class es for 80 minutes and then their three even-numbered classes on Wednesday for 80 minutes. "We could change it either way,” Stone said. “We could go even-odd. We haven’t decided how we want to do it.” One big change is that students wouldn’t start classes until 8:55 a.m. on Wednesdays. The late Wednesday start time allows teachers a collaborative plan ning period from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. Parents would still be able to drop students off the usual start time, however. Another major difference with the modified seven-period schedule is a multi-purpose, 50-minute enrichment period on Wednesdays. That time would allow students behind in their schoolwork to catch up or students taking advanced placement classes to get ahead. It could also be used as reward time to allow students passing all their courses to take non-traditional classes. "We’re going to do a lot of stuff in enrichment that we normally wouldn’t do,” Stone said. “We may teach a dance class, just the things that the kids are interested in.” Stone added that students could even take online classes indepen dently that MCHS doesn’t offer. But the main goal in switching to a seven-period modified schedule is to increase the graduation rate. Stone said, and seven-period modified schedules are growing in popularity with graduation rules changing. One of the major strengths of this format is that it adds 400-500 minutes of instruction time per class throughout the year. And Stone likes offering classes for an entire year. "We feel like the year-long classes is going to give us some continu ity in our classes for our students,” he said. The students the principal has spoken with about this appear recep tive to the proposed change. "They said it would take some getting used to ... But they feel good about the shorter class periods,” Stone said. Comer gets approval to use excess grant money By Zach Mitcham zach@mainstreetnews.com Comer can use excess grant funds to pay off waterline upgrade costs. The city sought permission from the state to use approximately $90,000 in leftover grant funds from the city downtown enhance ment project, which included an improved stormwater runoff system and sidewalks. During the grant-funded project, the city also replaced old water lines and improved the town’s fire protection, using sales tax funds to cover the cost of the lines. City clerk Steve Sorrells said the city has gotten approval from the state to use the extra $90,000 in grant funds to help cover the cost of the water improvements. That will free up more money for future sales tax projects. In other business, the Comer council will discuss the city's pro posed 2010 budget Monday at 2 p.m. The proposed budget is down 1.6 percent from this year, from $609,780 to $599,630. 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