April 2 Commission Meeting: Architect, Water Authority, Mystery Businesses and Rebukes

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Fannin County Board of Commissioners met on April 5th.  The meeting was at an unusual time slot for the Commissioners; it was the first Tuesday instead of the second Tuesday of the month.  At the last meeting, the Commissioners said that they needed to meet a week earlier so they could award the bid for designing Fire Station #1 and discuss personnel matters.  Besides those two topics, other items discussed were the Fannin County Water Authority, mystery companies coming to Fannin County, media portrayal, Tax Assessors’ office, scholarship proposal and a rebuke to people offering all the answers.

Fannin County Board of Commissioners awarded R Design Works the contract for designing Fire Station #1/ EMS center that will be built on Windy Ridge Road.  R Design Works, out of Morganton, GA, is owned by Rick LaRossa.  He has designed several Fannin County buildings:  Fannin County Development Authority, Mercier Orchards and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.  Currently, he is designing the City of Blue Ridge’s new welcome center.  David Goodspeed was the other main competitor for the bid. Goodspeed Architecture is new to building for Fannin County.  He does have experience with building schools, government buildings and fire stations in Florida, from where he moved to Fannin County.  The projected difference between the two bids was around $2,000 with Goodspeed’s being the lowest.  The Commissioners decided, though, to go with R Design Works because of its history of designing buildings in Fannin County.  The third Fannin architect’s, Milan Vancura, bid was more than 1% higher than the other two, which would have resulted in greater expense.

At the previous meeting, Post 2 Commissioner Larry Joe Sosebee suggested that Fannin County government needs to review its personnel policy because there are loopholes in it.  At the end of this meeting, April 5th, the Commissioners met in Executive Session to discuss the policy.  They returned from the session and reported they will review the policy on their own over the next few weeks and will bring it up again at a meeting in the near future.

The Water Authority was back in the public comments section at the Commissioners meeting (read here for more information about the Water Authority dispute).  Joe Webb asked that the Water Authority’s budget summary for 2015 be unbundled so that the division between SPLOST funds and other revenue sources funding the Water Authority can be clearly seen.  Mr. Webb says that citizens and officials need to know this information so that informed decisions can be made regarding the SPLOST 2016 ballot.  Mr. Webb’s comments turned an unexpected corner when Mr. Johnson said that we shouldn’t be co-mingling meetings either.  Mr. Johnson said that Water Authority topics don’t need to come to the Board of Commissioners’ meetings because the Commissioners’ only oversight of the Water Authority is in making appointments to the water authority.  Mr. Johnson asked if people had problems with the Water Authority, why didn’t they go to the Water Authority meetings.  Stan Helton, Chairman of the Water Authority, brought up the clear division between the Water Authority and the Board of Commissioners through an example.  He said that if people have problems with the Blue Ridge City Government or the Mccaysville City Government, they don’t bring their grievances to the Board of Commissioners because the cities are independent entities, just like the Water Authority is an independent entity.  Mr. Helton also said that he received Mr. Webb’s open records request and is processing it.

There are mystery companies coming to Fannin County.  One is more chicken houses, six to be exact.  Another is Redi-Mix.  A third group is the companies, yet unknown, who will rent facilities in the 20,000 square foot multi-use facility coming to Mccaysville.  No hint about two companies.  And, then, the great teaser about one company that pleases the Commissioners so much that tickled pink Commission Chairman Bill Simonds winked as he was talking about it.  Elaine Owens of the Fannin Sentinel asked Mr. Simonds what the company is.  Mr. Simonds said everyone in town knows, but that you wouldn’t hear it from him.  The audience looked expectantly toward another Commissioner to let the cat out of the bag.  Mr. Johnson took on the task and  drew a giant question mark on a piece paper, held it up and said that it was the name of the company.  FetchYourNews also tried to wrestle the secret from the Chamber of Commerce members to no avail.  But, a reason for the secrecy was given and that is that tax rebates and other government goodies that will make Fannin’s sweeter to the mystery company is still under negotiation.

Chief Appraiser Dawn Cochran reported on the Tax Assessors’ progress toward assessing and citing all land parcels in order to meet a state mandate.  Out of 49,932 parcels in the county, the assessors have cited 33,381 parcels.  New assessment notices will be mailed on May 13.

Fallout from the exchange between the Tax Assessors’ office and the Board of Commissioners at the Feb. 23 meeting still continues.  At the meeting the Commissioners forcefully questioned Ms. Cochran about how the Tax Assessors compile bids and make purchases.  In Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. Sosebee said that he had been inaccurately portrayed by the media and that he never denied the Tax Assessors’ office the ability to purchase and repair vehicles; his disagreement was over how the office went about acquiring bids for vehicles.  Mr. Sosebee felt that the accusations made in an editorial were unfounded and told the reporter not to contact him by phone.

During the Public Comments section, Joe Webb floated the idea of the county providing around $5,000 a year to assist with student loans of Fannin children who have come back to the county to work after they finish college.  He says that the low salaries typical of Fannin jobs dissuade home-grown college graduates from returning here to work.  He believes a small stipend for a few years that goes directly to paying off the loans people to look for their first jobs in Fannin.  Mr. Webb proposes that the money could come from economic development or rural development grants.

Finally, it was time for the Commissioners’ comments.  The topic of Mr. Johnson’s usually joking but pointed comments was people’s comments about how to run a government.  He said that the biggest misconception about leading a government is that decisions are clear cut.  This leads some people to make accusations about officials’ decisions when the people only have half the facts.  Mr. Johnson said that he knows he is not the smartest person in the room, but he tired of others trying to be the smartest person in the room.  He finished with, “Think you’ve got all the answers; show us some results of what you have done.”

The Board of Commissioners will not be meeting next Tuesday, April 12th, which would be their regularly scheduled date.  Their next meeting will be on April 26th, the fourth Tuesday in April.

 

 

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