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PAGE 2A-THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 19. 2019
Chamber continued from 1A
911
continued from 2A
from UGA’s College of
Agriculture and Environ
mental Sciences (CAES) in
2012 with a BSA in Agri
cultural Communication. In
2017 she earned her master
of Agricultural Leadership
degree.
She has also actively
participated in local and
state level leadership pro
grams throughout her life
including Teen Leadership
Cherokee. Leadership Cor-
dele-Crisp County, Ad
vancing Georgia's Leaders
in Agriculture and Lorestry,
GeorgiaForward Young Ga-
mechangers and the Geor
gia Academy for Economic
Development.
Currently she serves on
the UGA College of Agri
cultural and Environmental
Alumni Association Board
of Directors, the Georgia
4-H State Advisory Com
mittee and the Athens Tech
nical College Agriculture
Program Advisory Com
mittee.
Strickland, who is a na
tive of Ball Ground, Geor
gia, lives in Comer with
her husband and owner of
Comer Vet Clinic, Dr. Ty
son Strickland.
“I am humbled to serve
this incredible community
alongside such an outstand
ing and driven volunteer
board, and I am grateful
for the opportunity to help
promote community, lead
ership and economic de
velopment where my fam
ily calls home,” Strickland
said. “The Madison County
Chamber of Commerce is
well-positioned to be an
other center of positivity
and productivity both in
this first year and for many
years to come as we con
tinue to connect and grow
together.”
Chamber board vice
chairman (and 2020 chair
man) Jill Lortson said
though they had several
great candidates, Strick
land is the perfect match for
Madison County.
“She has Chamber expe
rience and she has the ag
riculture piece which is so
important to our communi
ty,” Lortson said. “She also
has the bonus of already
having good solid relation
ships with the people and
business community of this
county. Besides all of that,
she is authentic, down to
earth and creative — she
already has good ideas for
how we can grow. We are
very proud to have her and I
only expect positive things
from her and from the
Chamber from here on out.”
Strickland will begin her
official duties as executive
director on Jan. 2.
Billing
continued from 1A
to conclusion and simplify
our terms of service mov
ing forward.”
The Journal asked Ginn
Monday for a regular,
monthly report on the status
of GRP billing. And the ex
ecutive director said there
would be no problem in
providing that. Last week,
The Journal sent an email
to the IDA office seeking
current GRP billing fig
ures. The paper received an
emailed response that the
director said the numbers
couldn’t be provided at that
time. Ginn clarified Mon
day that he wasn't hiding
any numbers, that he was
on a family trip and didn't
have billing figures in front
of him when reached by
the IDA office with the
paper’s request. He said
the response wasn’t meant
as a denial of figures, but
a desire not to provide the
wrong ones to the paper
while he was away from
the office.
“I’m happy to discuss
anything you want to
know,” he said.
The Journal also contact
ed GRP last week about
water billing and other is
sues. A GRP representative
responded with the follow
ing emailed statement:
“GRP is current on all
pending water bills,” wrote
the representative. “We had
a payment outstanding of
$74,075.10 that was paid
today (Dec. 13). A recent
billing of $54,823.93 was
billed Dec. 9 and will be
paid per the terms of the
bill. GRP worked with the
county IDA to expand the
county water system to
benefit the entire county.
GRP spent over $2 million
on county water upgrades
and donated these facilities
to the county, including a
new water pump house and
three-million gallon water
tank.”
The representative add
ed that “GRP donated a $1
million escrow payment to
the county IDA to cover
the county’s debt service in
case the plant never reached
commercial operation.”
“The plant has reached
commercial operation and
secured the county’s in
vestment in the water line
extension,” said the GRP
representative. “The out
standing construction bill
from the county to GRP
is for the cost overruns of
the water line extension in
curred by the county. GRP
is working with the county
to use the $1 million es
crow payment to pay for
these construction overruns
as well as potentially ex
panding and improving the
water system even further
to benefit the entire coun
ty”
Apart from water bills,
GRP has a 2019 property
tax bill of over $1.6 million
property due to the county
Lriday, Dec. 20. County
tax commissioner Lamar
Dalton told commission
ers county commissioners
Monday that the company
hasn’t paid that bill. He
said he expects GRP to pay
by the due date, but he told
the BOC that he will issue
Lifa (A Fieri Facias Lien)
notices Dec. 26 with those
late on taxes having 30
days to respond before hav
ing a lien on the property.
EPD
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David Groves, plant man
ager for both Colbert and Car-
nesville sites, said the staff has
found no evidence of a spill in
Colbert.
“GRP and the plant staff are
investigating and have been in
communication with EPD on
the alleged issues noted in the
NOV (notice of violation),”
said Groves. “Based on our in
vestigations to date, there has
been no spill at the plant, nor
has there been any evidence
that a wastewater discharge
has occurred as alleged in the
NOV compliant.”
The EPD said the discharge
of wastewater without a per
mit is a violation of state reg
ulations. The agency ordered
GRP to cease discharge of
wastewater from the facility
until a National Pollutant Dis
charge Elimination System
(NPDES) permit is issued to
the company by the EPD.
“There shall be no discharge
from Outfall 1 until the waste-
water that has accumulated in
the stormwater pond has been
recovered for containment
elsewhere at the facility and/
or for disposal as approved by
the Division,” wrote Hays.
The environmental agency
noted that GRP submitted an
NPDES permit application
to the EPD in February to
discharge wastewater into an
“unnamed tributary to Beaver-
dam Creek through Outfall 2.”
But Hays said the EPD has
been unable to draft that per
mit due to “insufficient and
missing information” from
GRP. This includes the lack of
documentation of an easement
or agreement for “Outfall 2”
to be located on an adjacent
property.
And the EPD maintains
GRP hasn’t provided a clear
overview of what it will do
about wastewater.
“GRP Madison did not
identify all sources and flows
of wastewater in the facility,
some of which flow to other
outfalls, currently designed for
stormwater.. .nor did the facil
ity identify pipelines where
wastewater might flow under
certain circumstances,” the
letter stated.
The EPD said that a pipe
seen discharging water during
a rain event on the weekend
of Nov. 23 was not identified
in the permit application and
“the source of discharge has
yet to be disclosed to the divi
sion.”
The EPD also said the com
pany’s evaporators in the fire
pond have been used in rainy
or windy weather, “resulting
in heavy condensation on the
adjacent property, causing
puddles and wet areas and
generally interfering with the
owner's reasonable use of
property.” The EPD ordered
the company to cease the use
of evaporators until it develops
better management of equip
ment and gets EPD approval
for the use.
The EPD ordered that with
in five days, GRP should sub
mit a detailed spill report for
the wastewater discharge of
Dec. 5, including “volume,
sample results, root cause and
corrective and preventive ac
tions taken and planned.” The
EPD also ordered an “expla
nation... of the pipe located
near the north side of the fire
pond.”
Within 10 days, GRP Mad
ison was also ordered to sub
mit a schedule for a complet
ed wastewater application,
with necessary details about
all waste sources, streams
and pipelines. The agency
asked for plans on disposal
of wastewater recovered from
the stormwater pond, best
management practices for the
evaporator and ongoing plans
for management of wastewa
ter until the NPDES permit is
issued.
The EPD also issued a no
tice of violation to the GRP
Carnesville facility related to
an October discharge of an
estimated 1.14 million gallons
of fire suppression water, that
had been used to control a
fire in a wood chip pile. That
water ran from a stormwater
pond into Indian Creek. The
discharge resulted in the death
of “2,159 fish over 4.6 miles
of the creek.”
“The Division observed
that runoff from the (wood)
pile appeared tannic and was
dark brown to black in color,”
stated Hays in a letter to GRP
about the Carnesville facility.
“GRP has stated that a small
percentage of the stored mate
rial was creosote treated.”
GRP was ordered to submit
plans for monitoring wood
chip pile runoff and discharges
from stormwater ponds during
future watering and storm
events. The company must
submit a plan to remediate any
effects from the October fish-
kill event. GRP is required to
submit water samples from
the stormwater ponds with
data for pollutants, such as be
ryllium, copper and nickel.
of trying to resolve an issue with Windstream
customers being able to call 911, we are still
experiencing a repetitive problem,” he said.
“When a Windstream land line calls 911, our
dispatchers cannot hear them. Instead of hear
ing a voice on the line on the callers end is only
static and electronic noise. The callers location
information is delivered appropriately so we
know where the problem is, just not what the
problem is.”
The dispatcher tells the caller that they cannot
hear them, to please hang up and then let the dis
patcher return the call.
“This generally works unless the caller stays
on the line or tries to call 911 again, in that cir
cumstance we get a busy signal,” said Baird.
“We have had numerous meetings and phone
calls with local Windstream personnel and man
agers who have been incredibly helpful. Unfor
tunately for them, Windstream is now owned by
Kinetic and none of their employees know who
to escalate the issue to and there is no one who
can fix the problem, even though it has been
identified as a problem with a switch owned by
Windstream.”
Scott Morris, Senior Adviser for Corporate
Affairs for Windstream, issued the following
statement Tuesday:
“When this issue was first reported, our in
vestigation indicated it impacted calls made to
the Madison County 911 center that had been
routed through our Dalton office,” wrote Mor
ris. Not all 911 calls in Madison County were
affected, however. We re-routed call traffic to
correct the problem. After being notified yester
day that the issue was occurring again, we re
opened our investigation. Test calls made today
by our technicians were completed successfully.
We are continuing to research the issue and are
working with AT&T, which routes some 911
calls in Madison County to our office in Dal
ton.”
Pay
continued from 1A
other counties.
The county provided a list
Monday of what employees
received raises. The list in
cluded the approved salary or
hourly rate, but didn’t include
the previous pay rate.
Commissioners approved
increases for the following
employees:
•Rhonda Wooten, county
clerk. $50,000 annually
•Tracy Patrick, deputy
clerk, $15 an hour
•Kathy Figueroa, finance
director, $55,000 annually
•Tracy Dean, chairperson,
board of elections, $23.08 an
hour
•Teresa Hilburn, deputy
registrar, $15 an hour
•Lynn Phillips, part-time
deputy registrar, $11.31 an
hour
•Dottie Code, part-time
deputy registrar, $11 an hour
•Melanie Kidd, deputy tax
commissioner, $20 an hour
•David Geiger, mainte
nance supervisor, $16 an
hour
•Timothy Ledford, mainte
nance, $13 an hour
•Kelly Caldwell, deputy
clerk II. $15.30 an hour
•Pepper Thompson, asso
ciate judge, $27 an hour
•Beth Harmon, deputy
clerk, $14.76 an hour
•Hayln Arnold, deputy
clerk, $13.22 an hour
•Summer Araujo, deputy
clerk, $13.73 an hour
•Keilah Dalton, chief dep
uty clerk, $15.26 an hour
•Cherri Wyatt. EMS billing
specialist, $20 an hour
•Mary Beth Dial, transfer
station director, $15 an hour
•Thomas Harmon, scale
house operator, $10 an hour
•Bobbie Rooker, food bank
director, $15 an hour
•Megan McMullan, food
bank assistant, $10 an hour
•Kelsey Tyner, senior cen
ter director, $41,600 annually
•Doris Tolbert, senior cen
ter assistant. $14 an hour
•Jerry Green, facility pro
grammer, $10.50 an hour
•Helen Johns, kitchen
manager, $11 an hour
•Steven Moss, facility pro
grammer, $10.50 an hour
•Alesha Blalock, facility
programmer. $10.50 an hour
•Andrew Lee, park atten
dant, $12 an hour
•Roman Strickland, park
attendant, $11 an hour
•Teresa Patton, building
and zoning director, $18.71
an hour
•The board allotted $8,000
to the sheriff's office to be
used for salary adjustments
at the sheriff's discretion.
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JEWELLENE MORRIS JOHNSON
HONORED BY COMMISSIONERS
County commissioners approved a proclamation Monday honoring Jewellene
Morris Johnson on her 90th birthday, born Nov. 13,1929, the third of six children.
She attended Madison County public schools and Gainesville Bible College. She
was married to James Johnson and later to Curtis Glenn Sr. She had nine chil
dren and raised a niece. Johnson worked at Colonial Poultry for 35 years, then
for 10 years as a health care provider. She attends Soul Winners and drives her
car to worship every Sunday. “Mrs. Johnson has always kept an open door for
her family and friends,” the proclamation stated. She was recognized for “a life
of service, sacrifice and commitment to her family and community.” Johnson is
pictured with family members and District 1 commissioner Lee Allen at Monday’s
meeting.
Q CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR
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The
Madison Co. Journal
438 Courthouse Square, Ste. 18A
P. O. Box 658
Danielsville, Ga. 30633
(706) 795-2567
/ or (706) 367-5233
r offices will be closed Wednesday,
mber 25 and Wednesday, January 1