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o o APRIL 13, 2023 Madison County Journal Merged with The Comer News and The Danielsville Monitor, 2006 MadisonJoumaITODAY.com Vol. 40 No. 10* Publication No. 1074-987 • Danielsville, Madison County, Georgia 30633 • A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers Inc. • 32 Pages, 3 Sections Plus Supplements $1.00 Inside: CITY NEWS Ag insert MADICO MADE Agriculture is Madison Co. ’s economic seed ENVIRONMENT ‘Spring Recycling Event’ set for April 22 A “Spring Recycling Event” will be held from 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday. April 22 at the Madison County Government Complex at 91 Albany Avenue in Danielsville. There will be document shredding, medication take backs, shoe recycling, clothes recycling, book recycling. Batteries, cell phones, chargers and ink cartridges will also be received. “Please join Keep Madison County Beautiful to cel ebrate Earth Day and take advantage of these free pro grams,” organizers said. For more information, call 706-795-5151. Statute of limitations approaches on GRP By Alison Smith Is the time to fight nearly over? That’s the message Drago Tesanovich, Co-Chair of Madison County Clean Power Coalition conveyed to the Colbert City Council at its last meeting. According to Mr. Tesanovich. the group has mailed over 100 letters to county and city residents who live near the Georgia Renewable Power Plant (GRP) located just outside Colbert city limits concern ing a meeting it will sponsor Sunday, April 23. The group has repeatedly wrangled with the plant over environmental and noise complaints since its opening nearly four years ago. That time frame is import ant in possible litigation related to the ongoing grievances. Tesanovich said the statute of limita tions for lawsuits against the owners or operators of the GRP Plant under Georgia’s nuisance law will expire in May of this year. The MCCPC Co-Chair explained in the letter to citizens and the city coun cil that the meeting in April will host attorneys from the law firm of McRae, Smith, Peek, Harman, & Monroe (MSP) to explain and discuss options about legal rights related to potential lawsuits. The Coalition’s letter states the law firm is involved in litigation with 24 clients in connection with the GRP Plant in Franklin County. The informational meeting will be held at the Colbert Municipal Auditorium, 60 GEORGIA RENEWABLE POWER First Street, Colbert. Sunday. April 23, at 3 p.m. Any impacted citizens are invited to attend. MUNICIPAL LIBRARY “It’s going to be fabulous!” That’s the claim the organizer of Colbert’s new municipal library room reported to the city council at its last meeting. Flo Hix explained that she has overseen new plaster in the room designated for the small library, new windows have been ordered, and a new mini-split system will be installed soon. She is hoping to have an open house for the new library by the summer. However, City Attorney Dale Perry clarified to the council that his research indicated the city must approve a new ordinance before officially opening the library. State code specifies that the city must See ‘Colbert’ on 2A COUNTY SEAT Danielsville council OKs townhome rezoning By Alison Smith A Danielsville town- home development got the go ahead from city leaders Monday. Only two citizens spoke, but the consensus was largely positive on the Danielsville public hearing to rezone 12 lots on Spring Lake Drive from DV-B to DV-R3. The rezoning application would allow for a new townhome development on the lots with over 100 units. Both nearby landown ers spoke largely in favor of the rezoning. “I think this will be a very good thing to get in Danielsville for the businesses,” one adjacent landowner said. “They need patrons and people to spend money in them.” April Hitchcock-Wat son questioned the absence of the sewer and water report as her main concern with the project. “While I'm not against the townhouses, I do think it needs to be in phases,” she said. Hitch- cock-Watson encouraged the city council to con- See ‘D’ville’ on 2A SCHOOLS Red Raider Resource Fair set for April 21 A “Red Raider” “glow-with-the-flow” block party — a resource fair for high schoolers — will be held from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Friday, April 21 in the MCHS freshman gym in Danielsville. There will be free food and giveaways, including AirPods, gift cards and more. INSIDE Index: News — 1-2A Church — 2A Crime — 3A Opinions — 4-6A Social — 6A Sports — 12A Classifieds — 7A Obituaries — 8-9A Legals — 10-11A Contact: Phone: 706-367-5233 Web: MadisonJournal TODAY.com News submissions: zach@ mainstreetnews.com Opinions: Food, the globe and support of local business — See Page 4A Public safety: Woman charged after throwing brick through window — See Page 3A On the Money Madison County’s Brayden Culberson hits an approach shot close Monday while shooting par during the Red Raiders’ win over Mountain View at Double Oaks Golf Course. See more photos at MadisonJoumalTODAY.com. Photo by Zach Mitcham ECONOMICS Poverty simulation event set for April 27 A poverty simulation event will be held in April for local community and business leaders. The event is planned by the Madison County Area Non-Profit Roundtable, the Madison Area Resource Team (M.A.R.T.) and the University of Georgia UGA Extension Service from 9 a.m. to noon, Thursday, April 27 at Colbert Baptist Church and is sponsored by Jackson EMC and MedLink Georgia. "The Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) is a unique tool See ‘Poverty’ on 2A STATE Affordable housing: Lots of talk, little action under the Gold Dome Environment: MOST receives award from Georgia Adopt-a-Stream — See Page 6A By Rebecca Grapevine Capitol Beat News Service Despite agreement among lawmak ers and advocates that Georgia needs more quality affordable housing, the General Assembly this year took few steps to address the shortfall. Most of the bills aimed at housing problems failed to pass, foundering on the shoals of inter-chamber dis agreements and controversy about the extent to which the state govern ment can limit local housing regula tions. House Bill 514, the “Housing Regulation Transparency Act,” spon sored by state Rep. Dale Washburn, R-Macon, would have prohibited local governments from extending moratoriums on building new hous ing beyond 180 days, with some limited exceptions. The Senate version of the bill - which passed on the last day of the legislative session - would have prohibited extended local moratori ums on both single- and multi-family housing. But the House disagreed with the Senate version, pushing the bill to a last-minute conference committee. With just hours left on the legislative clock, there simply wasn’t enough time to hammer out the differences. Washburn said he is optimistic the bill will pass next year, the second year of the current two-year legisla tive term. “I’m trying to make it easy to develop and to build housing for Georgians, whether it’s multifamily or single family,” said Washburn, a veteran real-estate agent. Local government advocates - mainly represented by the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) and the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) - did not oppose HB 514. But they balked at another bill Washburn proposed that would have prohibited local governments from regulating a long list of housing design elements, from roof design to building materials to minimum lot See ‘Affordable’ on 2A