Several updates came through East Ellijay’s City Council Meeting Tuesday night, December 13, including the continuation of the annual Christmas Meal Program and a possible change to your garbage pick-up.

The Council happily approved the continuation of their Christmas Meal Program for Senior and Needy Citizens. A program that has been held since the early 2000’s, this program offers turkeys or hams to citizens over 65 and citizens in need for the holidays. The program, which costs the city roughly $700, is supported by local businesses such as the Food Lion, who Mayor Mack West stated was very interested in helping this year.

Mayor West also stated those businesses usually offer a special price to the city for the food as well. However, as the cities population ages, new people have been added to the list to receive the gift for the holiday season with over 40 possible people for this year alone. The City’s gift of the turkey or ham has received great praise over the years and the council’s approval has set it to continue through this Holiday Season.

As the season continues, though, the Council has already begun looking to next year as the Council Approved Changes to the parameters of the Position/Classification Pay Plan for 2017. These changes are to follow state regulations as a couple of officials salary increases. Regulating the high and low ends of an employees pay scale, the update is set to affect two employees according to Mayor West.

Another change citizens will be looking into came as the Council discussed changing the Bi-Weekly Garbage Collection from Sunday and Wednesday to a Monday and Thursday pick-up. Mayor West suggested the change comes to aid in safety and liability for the county. As the council approved the change at their meeting, they are still working on if they will change the time of pick-up to avoid traffic.

The City Council has additionally purchased a new Kubota Front Loader with Bucket from Nelson Tractor Co. The $4,550 purchase will include the attachment that the Street Department Manager will be utilizing on his personal Kubota for the county’s use. Mayor West stated, “We don’t need a tractor full time. We don’t need to buy a $75,000 tractor.” As the equipment is installed on the tractor, the City will pay $50 an hour for the use of Department Manager’s Chipper and Tractor in City Functions.

One note for the meeting came as the Meeting moved to new business applications including National Loan located at 136 First Ave. There were name changes of the Wok becoming East Town Pub, and the Pourhouse becoming Whiskey River Tavern. However, one new business application was tabled due to a need for further investigation. The application was for the Smoke Shop located on Maddox Drive.

The Mayor’s Report also brought up new information on several areas of the City. Debbie Sadler delivered a JDA (Joint Development Authority) report to the City suggesting several possible projects that both East Ellijay and the County as a whole could be seeing in the coming year. While she declined speaking on details, Sadler did suggest to the county that a few of the possible projects could aid in the County’s Tourism efforts as well as the possibility of a government related project looking for 10,000 square feet.