Alcohol Banned on Gilmer County Rivers

During Thursday night’s June 9th Meeting, The Gilmer County Board of Commissioners heard input from citizens on the regulations for Gilmer County Rivers.

There were actually two separate items on the agenda to incorporate two changes the Commissioners were looking at for the county’s unincorporated rivers, meaning the sections of the river’s outside the city limits of Ellijay and East Ellijay.

The first change was to implement an ordinance regulating the entirety of the county’s rivers while also instituting a one dollar charge on the a specific section of the Cartecay involving the use of county owned land in the area as a take out point. The Commissioners were considering this charge to be specifically dedicated to installing and maintaining a bathroom and changing facility at the take-out location. Several people stood to speak in the hour long public hearing, all in opposition to the regulations.

Judy Oglesby spoke saying if the county wanted to continue encouraging new business in the county, they need to stop this ordinance and restrictions on the area.

Joene DePlanke agreed calling the ordinance “onerous” and asking for posting signs of potential rules such as glass or alcohol in several areas informing the citizens. She went on to say that the county should investigate ideas for donation collections in support of facilities at the location.

Woody Jensen of the Cartecay River Experience also indicated he felt his company was being unfairly targeted on the ordinance with the one dollar surcharge and questioned several details about the ordinance including how the county expected to collect the money, and who would enforce the new regulations imposed by the ordinance, going so far as to ask, “Are you going to have a Sheriff out on the river?”

Most of the continued comments fell in similar lines with the main focus of the people opposing the idea of a dollar “tax” as some of them called it.

As the regular meeting followed the public hearing, the commissioners took their turns to comment indicating their original plans for the ordinance, but agreeing with the people’s comments and suggestion. Post Commissioner Travis Crouch said this was the essential key to the County’s function and enjoyed hearing the public’s feedback on these issues.

Commission Chairman Charlie Paris also stated that with the public in such opposition, he had come to believe the ordinance was not the best plan moving forward. The failure of hearing a motion effectively ended the first ordinance.

However, the following discussion for the second river item on their agenda revolved around the possibility of bannin alcohol and glass on the river. A very different discussion saw people on both sides of the issues. Woody Jensen of the Cartecay River Experience suggested restricting the river to one zippered cooler on the river with people to help control the alcohol without an outright ban. One homeowner on the river disagreed siting several issues of lewd and inappropriate activity.

The Board of Commissioners ultimately elected to approve the alcohol ban, however. The ban is issued immediately with the Chairman Paris set to collaborate with the River outfitters on the construction and placement of signs to indicate the new ban at several locations.

While nothing was set specifically for the construction of facilities at the County’s take-out location, Post Commissioner Travis Crouch did indicate his interest in exploring the idea as proposed by the citizens in hopes to see the area improved for both tourists and citizens alike.