The Ellijay City Council has approved a piece of property located beside United Community Bank on Industrial Drive to be rezoned from General Commercial to General Industrial. The property which was approved to be rezoned is known to be the future sight for a factory of Whitepath Fab Tech. On March 12th, FYN announced that Randy Durden, owner of Whitepath Fab Tech, would be expanding the company to a piece of property on Industrial Drive. Whitepath Fab Tech is a company that manufactures wiring and wiring harnesses for industrial electronics and as of today has three North Georgia facilities and one Mexico facility. A date as to when the company is scheduled to open the new facility is still unknown.

The rezoning of the property was unanimously approved by the Ellijay City Council at their city council meeting on June 18th. Following the meeting, city council member David Westmoreland said of the approval,

“It’s a positive thing. We’re creating jobs in town and we are renovating a commercial property to an industrial property. It’s all positive for the city.”

Also at the city council meeting, the city council approved an audit presentation draft from Manager/Partner/Owner Lee Jennings of accounting firm RL Jennings. The city council was obligated to approve the audit presentation done by RL Jennings so that the firm could file an audit with the state by June 30th. By filing the audit, this certifies the city to receive different types of grant money that they may need.

Along with the approvals of the rezoning and audit presenation, the city also approved to fill a vacant spot on the city’s Planning Commission. On February 20th, the council reappointed Mike Bailey, Harold Callahan, Bill Miller, and Connie Davis to the Ellijay Planning and Zoning Commission. However, at the time it was unknown whether or not current member Letch Watkins would still be willing to serve on the committee due to illness. At the meeting on Monday, it was announced that Letch Watkins was still willing to serve.

Lastly, the city council also approved to fill a vacant spot on the city’s Historic Preservation Committee (HPC). At the last city council meeting on May 21st, the city council discussed filling the vacant slot with Downtown Development Authority Chairman Larry Robinson, but was unsure whether or not it would be a conflict of interest for Robinson to serve on both authorities. After researching the rules and regulations of the committee, the city council decided that Robinson could serve as both a member of the HPC and DDA Chairman.

FYN will continue to bring you more coverage of the Ellijay City Council meetings.