Lula considers paving
projects
BY SHERRY LEWIS
With the new fiscal year now underway,
the Lula Town Council is ready to disburse some funds from the
budget for paving.
At their meeting Monday, the council voted to pave Mill Street
and Harris Drive at an estimated cost of $17,000. The council
also discussed paving the unpaved portion of Shockley Road and
Thornton Alley but did not take any action. These are the only
two roads in the city that are not paved, according to council
member Milton Turner.
While the council talked favorably of paving Shockley during
this budget year, the council must find out if the city actually
owns Thornton Alley before agreeing to pave that road, Turner
said.
The council budgeted $38,000 for paving during this fiscal year.
In other business, the town council:
·hired a part-time person to help with grass-cutting during
the summer.
·asked the city engineer to complete a study on a well
on West County Line Road. If the site is approved, the council
agreed to purchase the well at a price of $15,000. |
Alto
looks at mobile home ordinance changes
BY SHERRY LEWIS
On the heels of a move by Banks County
officials to strengthen the mobile home ordinance, Alto city
officials are looking to do the same.
During a meeting last Tuesday, council members took a look at
the ordinance in Banks and Habersham counties. Mayor Jack King
said he will ask the council to consider the new Banks County
ordinance. The ordinance has provisions to allow older mobile
homes in the city if they are brought up to specs and that is
what King likes about the ordinance, he said.
"The mobile homes that are brought in should improve the
neighborhood and others cannot be brought in," he said.
"The purpose of the ordinance is served and you can keep
the slum lords out."
The council became concerned about the ordinance after a citizen
asked for a variance on his moving permit to move a trailer more
than 10 years old from the Habersham County side of Alto to the
Banks County side. In 1998, Ronnie Cantrell received a permit
to move the trailer for storage and then remodeled and rented
it without notifying city hall, according to the minutes of the
council meeting.
During the meeting last week, the council voted to fine Cantrell
$250 for "obtaining a move permit falsely." King issued
the storage permit and the council has asked him to never allow
a controversial permit to be issued again.
In other business, King told the council that the water line
project was on schedule and should be finished by August 31. |
BOE budget up $1.2 million
BY DREW BRANTLEY
Meeting the needs of a growing student
population may cost Banks County residents a little more next
year.
The Banks County Board of Education has added 13 new staff positions,
which is the main cause for the proposed FY 2000 budget's jump
to $13.8 million. Meeting the $1.2 million increase from last
year's $12.6 million budget may require the board to raise the
millage rate.
The board will meet Thursday to finalize the budget, which must
be advertised in the legal organ for two weeks before being passed.
The budget must be approved at a regular meeting. The board's
next regular meeting will be Monday, Aug. 10.
Board members met last week to discuss the budget, paring slightly
more than $100,000. The rest of the expenditures are necessary,
superintendent Dock Sisk said.
"There's not a lot left to cut in this budget," Sisk
said. "Anything that gets taken out now will be things that
we really need."
During discussions on the budget, BOE member Len Dalton said
the board should explore every chance to reduce expenditures
before asking for a tax hike.
"What scares me is the bottom line," Dalton said. "I,
of all people, want the instruction to be top notch. But I don't
want us spending unnecessarily if we're going to have to ask
the taxpayers to pay for it."
One of the substantial cuts made by the board was to lease a
new bus rather than buy one. This delays a purchase cut of $105,000
from the budget.
The main increase in the new budget has come from the addition
of new personnel and a four percent raise for all existing employees.
Teachers' salaries increased to $7.8 million from $6.9 million
last year. Student services and maintenance costs added a total
of $300,000 to expenditures.
The amount of local effort money Banks County had to turn over
to the state also increased by more than $200,000. The local
effort is determined by the value of the county's digest, which
increased from last year.
After the tax digest is released later this year by the county,
the board will set its millage rate.
Citizens request
police protection in Lula
BY SHERRY LEWIS
After a request by citizens last month,
the Lula Town Council is still undecided about how to provide
more police protection to citizens.
The council and citizens met with a representative of the Hall
County Sheriff's Department last month and asked for more police
visibility-especially overnight. The citizens reportedly asked
for the extra coverage due to vandalism and because teenagers
roam the streets more during the summer.
Since that meeting, Mayor Tim Allen believes visibility has increased
in the area.
"I believe they are a little more active in the area since
our meeting," he said. "The fact that we asked last
month may have been enough."
Members of the Lula Area Betterment Association also asked the
council to consider hiring a part-time security person if it
is feasible.
At the meeting Monday, council member Milton Turner said he would
rather pay Hall County a fee for more coverage than get into
the liability of hiring an off-duty officer to patrol the area.
"I don't want the liability of having court and paying the
county to house prisoners," he said. "It we do that,
those prisoners are not county prisoners but city of Lula prisoners."
|
Real estate sales totaled $13.9
million during January to June this year compared to $15 million
last year.