ELLIJAY, Ga — Commission chair Charlie Paris hit the ground running, pulling the trigger on several overdue agenda items.After Paris’ first workshop and board of commissioners meeting, both held on January 8th, 2015, one thing is for certain; he doesn’t plan on wasting any time making decisions to move Gilmer County forward as a community in many different aspects.

Several items were covered, but one of the first major decisions that Paris and the other board members, Post 1 Commissioner Dallas Miller and Post 2 Commissioner Travis Crouch, made was to do whatever it took to take care of having all of the courthouse files backed-up in a new system.

Paris made note that when the new courthouse was built that there was no budget for new servers or methods of backing up courthouse data. All of the the old servers and backup procedures were brought over from the old courthouse and placed in the new courthouse, meaning that not only were the old backup servers severely out of date, but that they didn’t even work all of the time.

“This problem needs to be addressed immediately; the county can’t afford to wait around on this any longer,” said Paris.

The cost of implanting the new method of backing up the courthouse data is $8,053.25. Since the amount was below $20,000, legally, the county didn’t have to bid out the job. Therefore, the board voted to rapidly move forward on the implementation of the new backup.

Another big step that Paris, along with Crouch and Miller, took was to pass the resolution to move forward with the decision to come together with the cities of Ellijay and East Ellijay to create a Joint Development Authority (JDA).

This board will work together to develop Gilmer County as a whole in hopes of bringing in more economic growth. With the ever growing tourist community, the JDA will be able to collaborate on how to help the county continue to grow along with it so as to keep people interested in coming to Gilmer County.

Paris stated that the biggest cost to creating the JDA would come from the hiring of a a full-time Economic Development Director which would cost about $130,000. That cost would be split up, though, with $40,000 coming from the cities of Ellijay and East Ellijay and $90,000 coming from the county.

Miller chimed in toward the end of the conversation to say that he believed this could be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, resolutions that the board would pass this year. Considering that the JDA could promote and head up major growth for the community he could very well be right.

The last thing mentioned at the meeting was in regards to the fine the county received from the Department of Revenue in December of 2014 (see the article FINED $175K). Paris didn’t have much to say, other than he just wanted everyone to know they will be kept in the loop and information will be passed along as more information is received.

“It’s (the knowledge of being fined) is out there and we will be working on it. There are steps we can take to handle it besides just writing a $171,415 check,” said Paris.

Continue to check back with FYN.com for more updates on the JDA and the fine from the state.

See the video below for the full meeting.