City council to hold town hall meeting Tuesday

News

BLUE RIDGE, Ga. – An agenda has been set for Tuesday night’s Blue Ridge City Council town hall meeting.

Headlining the meeting will be discussion of the upcoming Georgia Cities Week, a week-long celebration from April 22 to 28 of cities across Georgia sponsored by the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA). GMA is a non-profit legal advocacy organization, of which Blue Ridge is a municipality member, that offers consulting services to its member cities.

During Georgia Cities Week, the city will be coordinating a city-wide litter clean-up. Donated dumpsters will be situated at locations within the city limits. Also, the city will conduct a Mayor’s Essay Contest, which will be open to all elementary, middle, high school or home school students. Those participating in the essay contest should compose a 150 to 300-word essay centered around the topic of “If I were mayor, I would …”

The council will also report on the progress of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) water infrastructure improvement project occurring in the neighborhoods east of East Second Street.

The farmer’s market is also on the agenda for the town hall meeting. During the last two city council meetings, the future of the farmer’s market property has been a much-discussed topic. At the February meeting, Council members Rhonda Haight and Ken Gaddis led discussion of the city council’s desire for the city to keep the property and refurbish the facility.

However, at the March 13 meeting, Jim Sisson, owner of Sisson Log Homes, approached the council with the prospect of buying, or perhaps leasing, the property through a bidding process. Sission explained his company would use the property for an overflow area for materials during the drying process. No decision was made, and the council agreed that local input from citizens at the town hall meeting would assist in reaching an ultimate decision for the future of the property.

Another item to be addressed at the town hall is downtown public restrooms. At the March 13 meeting, local business owner and President of the Blue Ridge Business Association (BRBA) Cesar Martinez pleaded with the council to find solution to what he felt are the city’s two most important downtown needs: parking and restrooms. Councilman Nathan Fitts assured Martinez the city was working diligently to address both of these downtown needs.

The city pool is also slated to be discussed at the town hall. The council has addressed the idea of refurbishing the city pool at prior meetings and have mentioned the success of the Blairsville city pool as an example for Blue Ridge to follow in this regard.

Rounding out the meeting will be a public commentary session.

The town hall meeting will take at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, at the Blue Ridge City Hall on West First Street.

 

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Author

Jason Beck

Born in Merrillville, Indiana, raised in Cleveland, Tennessee, and currently resides in Copperhill, Tennessee. Graduated from Bradley Central High School in 1996 and attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, eventually earning a B.A. and M.A. in English. Hobbies include hiking, camping and fly-fishing. Interests include baseball, hockey and cliff jumping.

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