| News from Banks County... |
OCTOBER 15, 2003 |
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Vote on loan payment illegally made behind closed doors The Alto City Council decided to pay $200,000 on a state loan Monday night after holding an illegal closed meeting to discuss the matter. The Georgia Open Meetings Law does not allow loans to be discussed in closed session. The issue of the loan first arose early in the meeting when Alto resident John Closs asked the council if there would be a discussion on the $300,000 payment on the GEFA loan. Mayor Carolyn Gulley said that the council would be going into “executive session” to discuss this later in the meeting. At 8:05 p.m., the mayor asked that everyone leave the building as the mayor and council were going into “executive session.” After 50 minutes in closed session, the meeting was opened to the public. A motion was made by Councilman Donald Wade that the town cash in bonds in the amount of $200,000 to pay on the GEFA loan at this time and, after that, pay at least $25,000 quarterly. The balance left in the bonds would be $290,000. A second was received from councilman Sharon Christmas and a unanimous vote was taken. After the meeting adjourned, Alto resident Cathy Armour stood up and said: “It scares me to know that you people are managing this town, I just want ya’ll to know that.” Several in the audience agreed and said the council was determined to break the town before they went out of office. Closs told the council members that they were breaking the law by making the decision to pay on the GEFA loan in a closed session. Councilman Wade replied: “We are not breaking the law.” After the meeting Closs also questioned taking $200,000 out of the account to the mayor and she replied: “If you would check your facts you would see that it will be put back in with franchise fees and SPLOST.” Closs also asked the mayor if any bonds had been cashed in and was told by the clerk that two had been cashed in because they had matured and she could get a better rate on them. BOC calls for two local referendums County voters will have at least two referendums to consider during elections next year. The Banks County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday night to have two items placed on the ballot. The first will be a homestead exemption for seniors and disabled citizens from $16,000 to $20,000. The second is a vote on changing the county’s form of government from its current state to a three-man commission board and a full-time county administrator. Rickey Cain made the motion to approve both referendums. Pat Westmoreland seconded the motions and they were unanimously approved. The referendums will appear on election ballots next year. OTHER BUSINESS In other business, the BOC: •approved a rezoning for Benny Brock to change 30.98 acres on Antioch Road from ARR to commercial agriculture district for two chicken houses. •approved a conditional use permit for Terry Crocker to build a litter stack house. •approved a conditional use permit for Michael and Debbie Poole to build two poultry houses on 30 acres of land on Silver Shoals Road. •declared October 20-24 as Public Safety Appreciation Week in Banks County in honor of the county’s deputies, fire fighters, EMTs and E-911 operators. •awarded the propane bid to low-bidder Amerigas for gas service at 89.9 cents per gallon. •awarded a $286,563 low bid to Gerrin Construction for the construction of the new Banks Crossing fire station. •agreed to pay half of the $49,900 engineering costs on the proposed work to Thompson Street. The city of Homer will pay the remaining costs. The BOC decided to leave out plans for a turning lane off of what will be the Old Hwy. 441 onto Thompson Street. The commission agreed the addition could be put into the project later on if necessary. •appointed Robin Trotter to fill the unexpired term of Lou Sokowoski on the Georgia Mountain Community Service Board. The term expires on June 30, 2004. •reappointed Harold Ivey to the planning commission for a four-year term. •updated the county’s road damage ordinance to send violators to the magistrate or superior courts instead of the probate court. •approved a resolution allowing the chairman and county attorney to seek a court order allowing the sell of car tags from January through March since the tax digest might not be approved by then. •tabled make changes to the county’s bereavement leave policy. The changes would clarify some language in exactly how many days and employee can take for a death to specific family members. The new policy also mentions in-laws. Cain asked that he have time to review the new policy before taking a vote. •heard from Emily Calhoun who spoke on behalf of Keep Banks Rural asking the commissioners to develop a comprehensive development plan to keep the county rural. She presented a petition of others who supported the idea. •heard from Harold Ivey who asked the BOC to look into doing work on the only covered bridge in Banks County. Commission chairman Kenneth Brady said he would research the issue and find out whether or not the county owns the bridge and if the public can get access to it. State election superintendent says ‘no more qualifying’ in Alto After the Lula City Council meeting adjourned Monday night, mayor Carolyn Gulley said that according to Alto’s town charter, qualifying for the mayor’s seat could be made up to 10 days prior to the election date. At the time, city clerk Barbara Reynolds said she did not think that would be legal. She also pointed out that if names had to be added to the ballot, it did not give the election superintendent enough time to get them printed in time for the election on November 4. Linda Beazley, Georgia Elections Commission superintendent, said in a phone interview Tuesday with The Banks County News that the state law would override the charter. “There will be no more qualifying for the mayor’s seat in Alto,” she said. “Qualifying is closed. The city’s charter is null and void when it is in direct conflict with state law. They can’t go back and reopen qualifying for 10 more days. Qualifying dates are set for every municipality in the state. The dates for qualifying were September 8 through September 12. That’s it.” Beazley also called the town attorney Jim Acrey to be sure he understands Georgia law concerning qualifying. She said that Acrey said that he had told Gulley qualifying could not be reopened, but he was ignored. Gulley did not qualify to seek re-election, although, she had indicated that she would do so. Audrey Turner was the only candidate to qualify for the mayor’s race. |
  Northeast Georgia Baldwin council grants sign variance to Beef Barron restaurateur Lula council candidates to debate on October 23 |
