City Council has appointed a seven-member Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board and has adopted a DDA resolution.
City Council has appointed a seven-member Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board and has adopted a DDA resolution.

The city council called a special workshop tonight in order to review the list of names recommended to be on a DDA board for the city. The city could not officially adopt a resolution to send to state to begin the DDA without having the names of a DDA board on the resolution along with a geographical boundary for a downtown area.

After an executive session in which to discuss and review personnel, the city council approved a DDA board and adopted the DDA resolution, verifying that it had all the legislative requirements.

The seven people that will serve as DDA board members for the DDA are; Larry Robinson, Melinda Hadden, Cliff Lancey, Jeff Riblet, Kent Sanford, Jim Stover, and Al Fuller.

Both Robinson and Hadden will serve for six years, Lancey and Sanford will serve for four, Stover and Riblet will serve for two, and council member Al Fuller will serve on the DDA board for the remainder of his council duties. As a requirement, six of the board members had to be a resident of the city or a resident of the county with a business in the city or a resident of the county with a significant economic interest in the city, and one board member had to be a city official.

Subcommittee and council member David Westmoreland said that also because of legislation, the terms had to be staggered for continuity.

Having an appointed DDA board, meant that the city could then adopt a resolution having both the required list of DDA board members and geographical boundaries for a downtown area in it. Once the resolution was adopted, this meant that Ellijay officially had it’s very first DDA. The resolution will now be sent to the state attorney to be filed at the Secretary of State’s office.

Also, in tonight’s city council workshop, council reappointed Brian Linkous, Chris Campbell, Dwayne Fowleer, and Anne Wilfer to the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. The only other member not reappointed was Jim Stover, who is now a member of the DDA board. Council said it would have to discuss whether or not Stover could serve on both the commission and the DDA board and the position would be filled at the next council meeting.