DDA Makes Headway in First Organized Meeting

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Yesterday, the city of Ellijay continued to make history by having its first ever organizational meeting for the city’s newly approved Downtown Development Authority (DDA). The city has been in the process of beginning a DDA since last year, and last week a DDA resolution was approved by the city council.Yesterday, the city of Ellijay continued to make history by having its first ever organizational meeting for the city’s newly approved Downtown Development Authority (DDA). The city has been in the process of beginning a DDA since last year, and last week a DDA resolution was approved by the city council.

The meeting began with Ellijay Mayor Al Hoyle welcoming those approved to be on the board for the DDA. Members of the board who took the oath were Al Fuller, Larry Robinson, Melinda Hadden, Jeff Riblet, Kent Sanford, and Jim Stover.

Despite the DDA being required to have a seven-member DDA board, only six DDA board members were in attendance last night after the seventh approved member Cliff Lancey chose to remove his name from the list last week. Lancey told FYN last week he chose to remove his name from the list because of what he told FYN was a politically motivated decision made by the council to put his name on the list.

Following the Oath of Office given to the board members, the DDA board was then obligated to elect a set of officers for the DDA. The officers they had to elect were a Chairperson, a Vice-Chairperson, a secretary, and a treasurer. Before the council made their decisions, Better Home Town Manager Mona Lowe explained that the secretary and the treasurer did not have to be a board member. After some discussion and nominations the board chose to elect Larry Robinson as Chairperson, Melinda Hadden as Vice-Chairperson, Jeff Riblet as treasurer, and Better Home Town Manager Mona Lowe as secretary.

It was then the DDA’s responsibility to go over the bylaws of a DDA board before signing member contracts that are included in the DDA bylaws. The board decided to postpone the signing of the member contracts so that they would have time to study the bylaws.

Also included in the bylaws was the discussion of a conflict of interest regarding the decision made by Cliff Lancey to remove his name from the DDA board. The decision made by Lancey is being called a conflict of interest because Lancey’s wife, Katie Lancey, is a member of the Ellijay City Council which is why Lancey told FYN that that he felt like the decision to make him a member of the DDA board was politically motivated. The conflicts of interest, along with the rest of the issues to be discussed in the bylaws were all tabled for review so the board could review and discuss the matters at a later date.

On a brighter note, last night the board did approve a decision to apply for a Downtown Development Revolving Loan Fund (DDRLF) to assist the Martyn House Inn Towne Project. Better Home Town Manager Mona Lowe first gave an explanation of a DDRLF and then a presentation was given by Martyn House Coowner Joanne Antonelli. The board then decided to approve a motion to apply for a loan to help finance the project. The loan program the city will apply for is able to provide a low interest loan of 40% of project costs because it is supported by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and the Georgia Cities Foundation programs. The owner will pay 10 percent equity on the loan, 50 percent will be a loan from the bank or investors, and 40 percent of the loan will come from the two programs. The county’s economic development authority was supposed to pass a resolution in support of the loan today. The DDA will next turn in its application to the state so that the state lawyers can read the application and send back a contract to the DDA before it is approved by the DDA. More loan applications are expected to be filed like this by the DDA as future projects emerge.

The DDA then made plans to have DDA training for the new DDA board members and scheduled a trip to visit the Dahlonega DDA so they can witness how the DDA in Dahlonega is supported. The training will be scheduled at a later date and the DDA will visit the Dahlonega DDA on the 21st to the 23rd of this month. The next DDA meeting is scheduled to be on April 17th at 4:00 p.

When asked if he was excited about the start of the DDA and if he thought the DDA will benefit the city, newly elected Chairman Larry Robinson said,

“I think it’s going to benefit the city in a positive way, I think it’s going to dress up the outside of our buildings, and I think it will bring more business downtown and consequently bring more visitors.”

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