Gilmer BOC Worksession 3/9/16

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Offer your congratulations to Post 2 Commissioner Travis Crouch. As he completes his final class next week he will become a fully Certified Commissioner under the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia. After the class, Commissioner Crouch will have completed 66 hours of training total, in addition to additional training he will complete every year as a part of the Continued Education Program. He has been working on this certification since he took office and was recognized by his fellow commissioners who were “very proud of his accomplishment.”

 

The Commissioners highlighted a discussion on a change to their timber ordinance to start the meeting. Having listened to several citizens concerns at their hearing last week, they will be adding words to their ordinance to allow certain exceptions by enforcement officers, but they must be written and presentable. Also, the ordinance will protect citizens from having to follow these rules as they landscape their properties, which could involve the removal of trees.

 

Several purchases were discussed for the county involving a 4 wheel drive Toyota Tacoma for Planning and Zoning Offices with the low bid of $31,380 from North Georgia Toyota, which is out of Dalton, and a 4-wheel drive Jeep Wrangler for the Tax Assessors with the low bid of twenty-five thousand four hundred sixty-nine ($25,469) from Mountain Valley Motors. Another discussion came as Public Safety is looking to purchase a Custom Cab Pumper Fire Engine for Fire House #1. Director Tony Pritchett stated this Fire Truck would be a “front-line” truck capable of responding to almost every fire in the county. Dallas Miller noted that while he believed in providing for our emergency services, he didn’t want to forget that these purchases were creating liabilities in the budget that future Boards would be responsible for. Several citizens spoke out in the discussion adamantly supporting the members of our emergency services and stating the purchase was worth it to maintain higher quality equipment for our county.

 

Citizens also spoke out vehemently on the the topic of the alcohol ordinance. Having resurfaced after August’s meeting due to a continuous stream of requests from citizens to revisit the subject without opening up to state standards, the commissioners heard several citizens words including those of former Commissioner Del Land who spoke of the history of the ordinance and the thoughts of his Commission as they originally passed the ordinance. Discussion from last week’s hearing came as some said they wanted to preserve their protection of a church located close to one convenience store while other spoke out for fairness of competition as only a couple stores are forbidden from selling alcohol due to the current “overly restrictive ordinance.”
Commissioner Dallas Miller spoke yesterday saying he was worried that if the Commissioners loosened their ordinance too much, they would invite in larger chain stores which could put some of our locally owned shops out of business. However, Commissioner Crouch responded, going so far as to say he was a local business owner and welcome the larger box stores into competition as he held a knowledge, service, and ‘personability’ that they could not compete with.

 

https://youtu.be/WUM1qrwhswU

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