Concerned about Rear-Ends Too
The Oconee County Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee tonight decided to go forward with a plan to hold a public hearing in late July or early August on its recommendation that the county build a separate judicial facility near the courthouse.
County Strategic and Long-Range Planning Director Wayne Provost showed the committee a first draft of a presentation that he proposed he give to citizens who turn out at the future public meeting.
The committee took no note of the action of the Board of Commissioners, who on May 25 decided to move county offices now in the leased Courthouse Annex across the street from the current courthouse in downtown Watkinsville to the Government Annex on SR15 on the south side of the city.
Commissioner John Daniell told me after that meeting that he wanted to see what kinds of renovations could be done to the Government Annex to accommodate administrative needs of the county before he made any decision about future space needs for either administrative or judicial activities of the county.
Maybe all county administrative offices could be moved to the Government Annex location and the current courthouse could be dedicated to court functions, he said.
The BOC decided to toss out the previously approved plans to redesign the space now used by the Public Works Department in the Government Annex and instead to redesign the entire facility to accommodate Code Enforcement and the Planning Department as well as other smaller departments now in the Courthouse Annex.
The two buildings that make up the Courthouse Annex are referred to as the Dolvin property in deference to previous owners.
County Administrative Officer Alan Theriault told the commissioners on May 25 that he expected construction at the Government Annex to start in January of 2011.
At the Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee meeting tonight Provost offered a rough estimate of between $20 and 22 million as the cost of acquiring property for and building a judicial facility and renovating the existing courthouse for administrative offices.
The Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee voted on March 9 to recommend to the BOC that the county build a separate judicial facility near the courthouse to accommodate the future needs of the county.
Provost said tonight he thinks it is a good time to acquire property and suggested that the county might use some of the estimated $4.2 million in unspent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenue for that purpose.
The BOC has decided to use an undetermined amount of that money for the renovation of the Government Annex.
Provost said he would revise the presentation he gave tonight taking into consideration comments made by committee members. They asked that he include pictures, more details about possible funding and a time line for the construction of the judicial facility.
The plan now is for Provost to bring that revision back to the committee at its July 13 meeting, which was nearly canceled. By a vote of 4 to 3, the committee turned down a motion that it not meet in July because of the difficulty of getting a quorum during the summer vacation period.
The committee canceled its May meeting because it could not get the required eight of 14 members to agree to attend.
At the July 13 meeting the committee is scheduled to decide the details of its public hearing. Committee chairman Abe Abouhamdan said he hoped that at least some of the commissioners would attend.
Following the discussion of the courthouse, Bob Isaac, a member of the committee, said that he was concerned about the likelihood of traffic accidents at the QuikTrip gas station and convenience story set to open later this month at the intersection of Daniells Bridge road and the Oconee Connector.
“We’re getting ready to have a nightmare,” Isaac said. The entrance to the gas station off the Oconee Connector from the turn lane to Daniells Bridge road is unsafe, he said. “You’re going to have rear ends. You are going to have collisions.”
Abouhamdam said the intersection was under the control of the Georgia Department of Transportation, not the county, and the county couldn’t do much about it. Provost said improvements could be made when the Oconee Connector was widened, but he said that could be as late as 2020.
Committee member Shane Carson said he thought the problem was going to be particularly bad about 5:30 in the evening when a driver decides “I need a drink on the way home” and turns suddenly into QuikTrip to pick up some beer or wine.
The Board of Commissioners granted QuikTrip its alcohol license at its meeting on June 1.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Approves FY 2011 Budget After Hearing
Darn Those Set-up Fees
On July 1, it will cost $50 to get a plumbing permit for a residential property here in Oconee County. It costs $40 now, if you happen to want or need one.
It will cost a resident of the county $90 per hour to rent the theater in the Civic Center on Hog Mountain road. Now it costs $80 for those who happen to need a theater.
It will cost $175 to rent the Heritage Park Pavilion main arena for an event set-up. At present, those people determined to set up their event at the Heritage Park Pavilion can do so for free.
It will cost $20 per person for a county swimming meet held under the auspices of the county. At present, there is no fee paid the county to be a part of such a swimming event.
If, come July, you are careless and lose you membership card for the fitness program at Veterans Park, you’ll have to pay $5 for a replacement. You get a replacement free now.
And if, starting on July 1, you want to purchase 2,000 gallons of water from the county because during the next 30 days you think you might want a drink, because you feel you’ll almost certainly need a shower, because you think your clothes are likely to need washing, or because your toilet already is calling out for a flush, you’ll pay $20.75.
At present, you pay $16.50.
None of these changes raised an eyebrow tonight at the Board of Commissioners meeting, which passed the proposed departmental fees–including the 25.8 percent increase in water rates--unanimously as part of the Fiscal Year 2011 budget. (Commissioner John Daniell--on vacation--was absent.)
County Finance Director Jeff Benko made no mention of the water fee increase when he discussed the Enterprise Fund budget, which is the budget for the Utility Department and which is in balance only because of the water rate increase and a parallel hefty increase in sewage fees.
He also didn’t mention the $5 charge for the membership card replacement. That money will end up in the general fund budget.
None of the commissioners mentioned the increase in water and sewer rates, which will affect the county’s 8,700 water customers and 1,200 sewage customers, when the matter came up for discussion.
No citizen spoke about plumbing, park set-up fees, lost membership cards–or water and sewer fees--when given a chance as part of the public hearing.
Because everyone was so quiet, the whole discussion and vote took only 4 minutes and 23 seconds.
As Benko said, he was glad the budget process had come to an end.
With hardly a whimper.
On July 1, it will cost $50 to get a plumbing permit for a residential property here in Oconee County. It costs $40 now, if you happen to want or need one.
It will cost a resident of the county $90 per hour to rent the theater in the Civic Center on Hog Mountain road. Now it costs $80 for those who happen to need a theater.
It will cost $175 to rent the Heritage Park Pavilion main arena for an event set-up. At present, those people determined to set up their event at the Heritage Park Pavilion can do so for free.
It will cost $20 per person for a county swimming meet held under the auspices of the county. At present, there is no fee paid the county to be a part of such a swimming event.
If, come July, you are careless and lose you membership card for the fitness program at Veterans Park, you’ll have to pay $5 for a replacement. You get a replacement free now.
And if, starting on July 1, you want to purchase 2,000 gallons of water from the county because during the next 30 days you think you might want a drink, because you feel you’ll almost certainly need a shower, because you think your clothes are likely to need washing, or because your toilet already is calling out for a flush, you’ll pay $20.75.
At present, you pay $16.50.
None of these changes raised an eyebrow tonight at the Board of Commissioners meeting, which passed the proposed departmental fees–including the 25.8 percent increase in water rates--unanimously as part of the Fiscal Year 2011 budget. (Commissioner John Daniell--on vacation--was absent.)
County Finance Director Jeff Benko made no mention of the water fee increase when he discussed the Enterprise Fund budget, which is the budget for the Utility Department and which is in balance only because of the water rate increase and a parallel hefty increase in sewage fees.
He also didn’t mention the $5 charge for the membership card replacement. That money will end up in the general fund budget.
None of the commissioners mentioned the increase in water and sewer rates, which will affect the county’s 8,700 water customers and 1,200 sewage customers, when the matter came up for discussion.
No citizen spoke about plumbing, park set-up fees, lost membership cards–or water and sewer fees--when given a chance as part of the public hearing.
Because everyone was so quiet, the whole discussion and vote took only 4 minutes and 23 seconds.
As Benko said, he was glad the budget process had come to an end.
With hardly a whimper.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Oconee County Proposed Departmental Fees Include Big Increases in Water and Sewer Rates
On Page 8 of 10
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners is set to approve a residential water rate increase of at least 25 percent for all but the most frugal of county water customers and a sewer rate increase of at least 16 percent when it gives final approval to the Fiscal Year 2011 budget on Tuesday night.
County Finance Director Jeff Benko made no mention of the water and sewer rate increases when he presented the proposed budget at the public hearing on May 25, and none of the five commissioners referenced it.
The rate increase was shown on page eight of a 10-page list of fees for county services that was put on the county web site on May 26.
While the base water rate will stay the same at $16.50, the amount of water that a customer gets for that amount will go down from 2,000 gallons per month to 1,000.
To get the extra 1,000 now included in the base rate, users will have to pay an additional $4.25, or 25.8 percent more than the amount paid this year for the same amount of water.
Utility Director Chris Thomas was on vacation last week, but representatives of his office told me that only about 500 of the roughly 7,500 residential customers in the system use 1,000 gallons of water or less each month.
Using 2,000 gallons per month or less is difficult. In my two-person home, we have used that little water only twice in the last seven pay periods. We take short showers, catch water that is warming from the bathroom faucets and shower to use to flush the toilet and limit flushing. And we watered outside only one of those pay periods.
Sewage rates also will increase, from $15.48 to $18.00 per month for 2,000 gallons of treatment for most residential customers, and from $12.48 to $18.00 for others. Those are increases of 16.3 percent and 44.2 percent respectively.
Finance Director Benko made only a brief reference to the Utility Department budget in his prepared comments and PowerPoint presentation on May 25. He said that the change in the Utility Department budget was “pretty negligible.” The spending will increase by $87,000, he said.
Neither the Athens Banner-Herald nor The Oconee Enterprise mentioned the rate increases in stories on the May 25 meeting. The Oconee Leader has not run a story on the meeting.
Oconee County Utility Department Director Chris Thomas proposed water and sewer rate increases to the Board of Commissioners when he met with it on April 14.
At that time, Thomas asked for a increase in the base water rate–for people using 2,000 gallons of water per month or less–of 15.2 percent. The rate would have gone from $16.50 to $19.00.
Residential water rates after the minimum also would have increased, with those using from 2,001 to 5,000 gallons per month paying $4.10 per 1,000 gallons, or an increase of 5.1 percent over the current rate of $3.90.
The highest rate would have been for those using 20,001 or more paying $7.16 per 1,000 gallon, or 5.0 percent more than the $6.82 per 1,000 gallon rate at present.
Thomas said at the time that the rate increases were needed in part because of the increased indebtedness associated with the county’s decision to join Walton County on the Hard Labor Creek Reservoir project.
Commissioners Jim Luke and Chuck Horton asked Thomas to come back with a new proposal that would hold the line on the base rate, with Luke suggesting that the base might be reduced to 1,000 gallons per month.
The Banner-Herald did not have a reporter at the April 14 presentation by Thomas. The Enterprise did, but the story that appeared in the paper about the hearing on April 22 did not mention water and sewer rate increases.
In none of the subsequent public discussions of the Fiscal Year 2011 budget has there been any mention of the rates that were placed on the web site on May 26.
The water and sewer rates also will increase for commercial users, and the amount of water covered by the base water rate also will decrease from 2,000 gallons to 1,000.
For residential customers, the sliding scale for increases in water rates will be changed as part of the new rate structure.
In the past, rates went up after 5,000 gallons, 8,000 gallons, 12,000 gallons and 20,000 gallons.
In the future, rates will go up at 4,000, 8,000, 12,000 and 20,000.
Customers will pay the $4.25 per 1,000 gallons for from 1,000 gallons to 4,000 gallons. Water users will pay $5.05 per 1,000 gallons after 4,000 gallons, $5.75 after 8,000 gallons, $6.67 after 12,000 gallons, and $7.16 after 20,000 gallons.
Commercial rates increase at 2,000 gallons per month now and do not change after that point. With the new rates, they increase to $5.15 per 1,000 gallons at 1,000 gallons and do not increase after that level. The current commercial rate is $4.90 per 1,000 gallons after 2,000 gallons.
The county has about 1,200 commercial water customers in addition to the 7,500 residential customers.
Most of the county’s 1,200 sewer customers are commercial.
On July 1, 2009, the base water rate increased from $14.04 per month for 2,000 gallons of water to the current $16.50 per month, or an increase of 17.5 percent.
On April 1, 2008, the county also increased water rates, but then only for customers using more than the base water rate of 2,000 gallons per month.
The county sent a mailing to all water customers following that 2008 rate increase, saying the rate change was being made as a conservation measure.
The county did not notify customers directly about the rate increase last year.
Utility Director Thomas told me in an e-mail message on Aug. 26, 2009, that he had received “very few complaints/comments about the increased rates.”
“There were several articles in the local papers discussing the rate increases,” Thomas said. “Also, your blog and numerous public hearings. The average homeowner only saw a $2-$3 increase in their monthly bill.”
The $6.3 million figure Finance Director Benko used on May 25 for the Utility Department budget in the current fiscal year differs from the figure used by Thomas in his presentation to the commissioners in April.
Documents released to me following that hearing in response to an open records request show that Thomas was reporting an amended budget of $5.6 million for Fiscal Year 2010.
Thomas only had data on revenue from water and sewage fees through the end of January of this year, however, and Thomas told the Board at the April meeting that water sales were increasing. Budgets are amended as revenue and expense figures change.
In addition to the water and sewage rate changes, the 2011 budget the Board is scheduled to vote on Tuesday night includes increases in building inspection fees, rental fees for park facilities and fees for park programs.
As with the water and sewer rate increases, these will become effective with the new budget on July 1.
Benko’s PowerPoint presentation is available on the county web site, and the video of the meeting is available on the county’s Vimeo site.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners is set to approve a residential water rate increase of at least 25 percent for all but the most frugal of county water customers and a sewer rate increase of at least 16 percent when it gives final approval to the Fiscal Year 2011 budget on Tuesday night.
County Finance Director Jeff Benko made no mention of the water and sewer rate increases when he presented the proposed budget at the public hearing on May 25, and none of the five commissioners referenced it.
The rate increase was shown on page eight of a 10-page list of fees for county services that was put on the county web site on May 26.
While the base water rate will stay the same at $16.50, the amount of water that a customer gets for that amount will go down from 2,000 gallons per month to 1,000.
To get the extra 1,000 now included in the base rate, users will have to pay an additional $4.25, or 25.8 percent more than the amount paid this year for the same amount of water.
Utility Director Chris Thomas was on vacation last week, but representatives of his office told me that only about 500 of the roughly 7,500 residential customers in the system use 1,000 gallons of water or less each month.
Using 2,000 gallons per month or less is difficult. In my two-person home, we have used that little water only twice in the last seven pay periods. We take short showers, catch water that is warming from the bathroom faucets and shower to use to flush the toilet and limit flushing. And we watered outside only one of those pay periods.
Sewage rates also will increase, from $15.48 to $18.00 per month for 2,000 gallons of treatment for most residential customers, and from $12.48 to $18.00 for others. Those are increases of 16.3 percent and 44.2 percent respectively.
Finance Director Benko made only a brief reference to the Utility Department budget in his prepared comments and PowerPoint presentation on May 25. He said that the change in the Utility Department budget was “pretty negligible.” The spending will increase by $87,000, he said.
Neither the Athens Banner-Herald nor The Oconee Enterprise mentioned the rate increases in stories on the May 25 meeting. The Oconee Leader has not run a story on the meeting.
Oconee County Utility Department Director Chris Thomas proposed water and sewer rate increases to the Board of Commissioners when he met with it on April 14.
At that time, Thomas asked for a increase in the base water rate–for people using 2,000 gallons of water per month or less–of 15.2 percent. The rate would have gone from $16.50 to $19.00.
Residential water rates after the minimum also would have increased, with those using from 2,001 to 5,000 gallons per month paying $4.10 per 1,000 gallons, or an increase of 5.1 percent over the current rate of $3.90.
The highest rate would have been for those using 20,001 or more paying $7.16 per 1,000 gallon, or 5.0 percent more than the $6.82 per 1,000 gallon rate at present.
Thomas said at the time that the rate increases were needed in part because of the increased indebtedness associated with the county’s decision to join Walton County on the Hard Labor Creek Reservoir project.
Commissioners Jim Luke and Chuck Horton asked Thomas to come back with a new proposal that would hold the line on the base rate, with Luke suggesting that the base might be reduced to 1,000 gallons per month.
The Banner-Herald did not have a reporter at the April 14 presentation by Thomas. The Enterprise did, but the story that appeared in the paper about the hearing on April 22 did not mention water and sewer rate increases.
In none of the subsequent public discussions of the Fiscal Year 2011 budget has there been any mention of the rates that were placed on the web site on May 26.
The water and sewer rates also will increase for commercial users, and the amount of water covered by the base water rate also will decrease from 2,000 gallons to 1,000.
For residential customers, the sliding scale for increases in water rates will be changed as part of the new rate structure.
In the past, rates went up after 5,000 gallons, 8,000 gallons, 12,000 gallons and 20,000 gallons.
In the future, rates will go up at 4,000, 8,000, 12,000 and 20,000.
Customers will pay the $4.25 per 1,000 gallons for from 1,000 gallons to 4,000 gallons. Water users will pay $5.05 per 1,000 gallons after 4,000 gallons, $5.75 after 8,000 gallons, $6.67 after 12,000 gallons, and $7.16 after 20,000 gallons.
Commercial rates increase at 2,000 gallons per month now and do not change after that point. With the new rates, they increase to $5.15 per 1,000 gallons at 1,000 gallons and do not increase after that level. The current commercial rate is $4.90 per 1,000 gallons after 2,000 gallons.
The county has about 1,200 commercial water customers in addition to the 7,500 residential customers.
Most of the county’s 1,200 sewer customers are commercial.
On July 1, 2009, the base water rate increased from $14.04 per month for 2,000 gallons of water to the current $16.50 per month, or an increase of 17.5 percent.
On April 1, 2008, the county also increased water rates, but then only for customers using more than the base water rate of 2,000 gallons per month.
The county sent a mailing to all water customers following that 2008 rate increase, saying the rate change was being made as a conservation measure.
The county did not notify customers directly about the rate increase last year.
Utility Director Thomas told me in an e-mail message on Aug. 26, 2009, that he had received “very few complaints/comments about the increased rates.”
“There were several articles in the local papers discussing the rate increases,” Thomas said. “Also, your blog and numerous public hearings. The average homeowner only saw a $2-$3 increase in their monthly bill.”
The $6.3 million figure Finance Director Benko used on May 25 for the Utility Department budget in the current fiscal year differs from the figure used by Thomas in his presentation to the commissioners in April.
Documents released to me following that hearing in response to an open records request show that Thomas was reporting an amended budget of $5.6 million for Fiscal Year 2010.
Thomas only had data on revenue from water and sewage fees through the end of January of this year, however, and Thomas told the Board at the April meeting that water sales were increasing. Budgets are amended as revenue and expense figures change.
In addition to the water and sewage rate changes, the 2011 budget the Board is scheduled to vote on Tuesday night includes increases in building inspection fees, rental fees for park facilities and fees for park programs.
As with the water and sewer rate increases, these will become effective with the new budget on July 1.
Benko’s PowerPoint presentation is available on the county web site, and the video of the meeting is available on the county’s Vimeo site.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Two Candidate Forums Scheduled for Early June in Oconee County
Parties Have Events Too
Two forums for Democratic and Republican candidates in the July 20 party primaries are scheduled to be held early next month. Both are open to the public.
The Oconee County Chamber of Commerce will hold its Political Forum from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on June 3 at the North Oconee High School Auditorium on Rocky Branch road near Hog Mountain road.
Russ Page and I, on behalf of local citizen groups, have organized a Candidate Forum starting at 8 p.m. on June 9 at the community center in Veterans Park on Hog Mountain road.
In addition, the executive committee of the Oconee County Republican Party, in cooperation with the board of the Oconee Regional Republican Women, will hold a candidate forum for Republican candidates in the contested races in the county from 7-9 p.m. on June 17 at the Watkinsville Community Center, 191 VFW drive.
Early voting actually starts on June 7 at the Board of Elections and Registration office next to the courthouse in Watkinsville. Voter registration runs through June 21, also at the office in Watkinsville.
The Chamber of Commerce Political Forum on June 3 will be moderated by Tim Bryant from 1340WGAU radio and will begin with an hour during which the candidates will have a chance to meet informally with the citizens.
Board of Commissioners candidates and Board of Education candidates will be on the stage from 7 to 8:10 p.m. and will be followed by candidates for the state House of Representatives and Senate.
Page and I will recognize citizens, who then will ask their questions of the candidates directly at the Candidate Forum on June 9. We will make sure that candidates have an equal amount of time to reply.
Our plan is to start with the BOC candidates, move next to the BOE candidates, and end with the candidates for the 113th House district, in which Oconee County lies.
We have commitments to attend from Tammy Gilland and Margaret Hale, candidates for the Post 3 BOC position in the July 20 Republican primary, as well as from John Daniell, running unopposed in the July 20 primary for Post 2 on the BOC.
Independent candidates have until July 2 to file their paperwork for the elections.
Mark Thomas, seeking Post 2 on the Board of Education, also has committed to attend. Mack Guest told me tonight he has to be out of town on business that night but that he will send a representative. Both Thomas and Guest will be competing in the Republican primary.
Carter Srickland, running unopposed in the Democratic primary for the Post 2 BOE position, also has committed to attend, as has Kim Argo, running unopposed in the Post 3 BOE Republican primary.
Daniell, Hale, Guest and Argo are incumbents.
Four candidates have filed for the 113th District post being vacated by Bob Smith’s retirement, and all have committed to attend the June 9 Candidate Forum.
The four are Suzy Compere, running unopposed in the Democrat primary, and Hank Huckaby, Tommy Malcom and Kirk Shook, running in the Republican primary.
Page and I also invited incumbent Sen. Bill Cowsert, running unopposed in the Republican primary, but Cowsert told me he will not be able to attend because he will be on vacation. No Democrat has filed to run against him.
While the Oconee County Republic Party event on June 17 only will involve questioning of the Republican candidates for the contested seats, all Republican candidates will be invited and have a chance to meet informally with citizens, Jay Hanley, chairman of the executive committee, told me tonight.
Hanley said he will release details on the format and commitments from the candidates soon.
The Oconee County Democratic Committee hosted 113th House district candidate Compere at its meeting on May 20.
The 113th House District includes all of Oconee County and parts of Morgan, Clarke and Olgethorpe counties.
Two forums for Democratic and Republican candidates in the July 20 party primaries are scheduled to be held early next month. Both are open to the public.
The Oconee County Chamber of Commerce will hold its Political Forum from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on June 3 at the North Oconee High School Auditorium on Rocky Branch road near Hog Mountain road.
Russ Page and I, on behalf of local citizen groups, have organized a Candidate Forum starting at 8 p.m. on June 9 at the community center in Veterans Park on Hog Mountain road.
In addition, the executive committee of the Oconee County Republican Party, in cooperation with the board of the Oconee Regional Republican Women, will hold a candidate forum for Republican candidates in the contested races in the county from 7-9 p.m. on June 17 at the Watkinsville Community Center, 191 VFW drive.
Early voting actually starts on June 7 at the Board of Elections and Registration office next to the courthouse in Watkinsville. Voter registration runs through June 21, also at the office in Watkinsville.
The Chamber of Commerce Political Forum on June 3 will be moderated by Tim Bryant from 1340WGAU radio and will begin with an hour during which the candidates will have a chance to meet informally with the citizens.
Board of Commissioners candidates and Board of Education candidates will be on the stage from 7 to 8:10 p.m. and will be followed by candidates for the state House of Representatives and Senate.
Page and I will recognize citizens, who then will ask their questions of the candidates directly at the Candidate Forum on June 9. We will make sure that candidates have an equal amount of time to reply.
Our plan is to start with the BOC candidates, move next to the BOE candidates, and end with the candidates for the 113th House district, in which Oconee County lies.
We have commitments to attend from Tammy Gilland and Margaret Hale, candidates for the Post 3 BOC position in the July 20 Republican primary, as well as from John Daniell, running unopposed in the July 20 primary for Post 2 on the BOC.
Independent candidates have until July 2 to file their paperwork for the elections.
Mark Thomas, seeking Post 2 on the Board of Education, also has committed to attend. Mack Guest told me tonight he has to be out of town on business that night but that he will send a representative. Both Thomas and Guest will be competing in the Republican primary.
Carter Srickland, running unopposed in the Democratic primary for the Post 2 BOE position, also has committed to attend, as has Kim Argo, running unopposed in the Post 3 BOE Republican primary.
Daniell, Hale, Guest and Argo are incumbents.
Four candidates have filed for the 113th District post being vacated by Bob Smith’s retirement, and all have committed to attend the June 9 Candidate Forum.
The four are Suzy Compere, running unopposed in the Democrat primary, and Hank Huckaby, Tommy Malcom and Kirk Shook, running in the Republican primary.
Page and I also invited incumbent Sen. Bill Cowsert, running unopposed in the Republican primary, but Cowsert told me he will not be able to attend because he will be on vacation. No Democrat has filed to run against him.
While the Oconee County Republic Party event on June 17 only will involve questioning of the Republican candidates for the contested seats, all Republican candidates will be invited and have a chance to meet informally with citizens, Jay Hanley, chairman of the executive committee, told me tonight.
Hanley said he will release details on the format and commitments from the candidates soon.
The Oconee County Democratic Committee hosted 113th House district candidate Compere at its meeting on May 20.
The 113th House District includes all of Oconee County and parts of Morgan, Clarke and Olgethorpe counties.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Oconee County BOC Set to Approve QuikTrip Beer and Wine License
Grabbing a Cold One
QuikTrip has had 98 violations of alcohol beverage ordinances in the last 10 years, including 30 in Georgia, according to paperwork the Oklahoma corporation filed in support of its application for a beer and wine license for the gas station and convenience store it plans to open next month at the intersection of Daniells Bridge road and the Oconee Connector.
Almost all of the violations are for selling alcohol to a minor, with all nine of the violations in Georgia since July of 2004 for that infraction.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners held a public hearing Tuesday on the QuikTrip request for its license to sell beer and wine at what it calls QuikTrip #819 and voted to put the final approval on the consent agenda for its meeting on June 1.
Unless a commissioner asks that the license approval be removed from the consent agenda, it will be approved with other routine matters without discussion at the June 1 meeting.
I asked Sheriff Scott Berry today if the county has a problem with the illegal sale of alcohol to minors, and he said it does.
He said his office has a vigorous effort underway to enforce the law and that he had met with representatives of QuikTrip on Tuesday “about that very issue.”
Berry said he explained to the representatives of QuikTrip that his office will monitor sales, be aggressive in making arrests and seize evidence in support of those arrests.
“Right now, to my knowledge, we don’t have anyone systematically selling” to minors, the sheriff said.
Berry said that QuikTrip plans to operate 24 hours a day and that residents had reason “to be concerned” about public safety at such a station.
In fact, back in June of 2009, when QuikTrip asked the county for a number of variances so it could put the gas station on the 1.3-acre site, its representatives raised the issue of customer safety at the facility during the public hearing.
QuikTrip asked that it not be required to plant a vegetive buffer between the station and the firehouse behind it because of a concern that patrons would purchase beer and wine in the store and then drink it hidden from public view in that buffer. The county proposed the wooden fence that has been used as an alternative.
As part of the license application, QuikTrip had to indicate if “anyone connected with this business” within the last five years “has been found in violation of the ordinances of Oconee County, or any other county or municipality, governing alcoholic beverages licenses.”
QuikTrip chose to list violations back through April of 1970.
Sheriff Berry told me today he had not reviewed the list and had scheduled his meeting with QuikTrip officials as part of his regular procedure of meeting with representatives of businesses coming to the county.
Racetrac, which operates a similar gas station and convenience store at the intersection of Hog Mountain road and U.S. 441, filed an application in 2009 for its annual renewal of its beer and wine license.
On the application, Racetrac said “it owns numerous convenience stores through the State of Georgia, some of which have had administrative violations.”
The application also said that an employee of Racetrac #51, the station in Oconee County, was issued a citation on May 24, 2007, “because the employee failed to properly calculate the age of the purchaser while entering the ID into the register.”
Berry put it more simply: “Racetrac sold to us.”
QuikTrip has had 98 violations of alcohol beverage ordinances in the last 10 years, including 30 in Georgia, according to paperwork the Oklahoma corporation filed in support of its application for a beer and wine license for the gas station and convenience store it plans to open next month at the intersection of Daniells Bridge road and the Oconee Connector.
Almost all of the violations are for selling alcohol to a minor, with all nine of the violations in Georgia since July of 2004 for that infraction.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners held a public hearing Tuesday on the QuikTrip request for its license to sell beer and wine at what it calls QuikTrip #819 and voted to put the final approval on the consent agenda for its meeting on June 1.
Unless a commissioner asks that the license approval be removed from the consent agenda, it will be approved with other routine matters without discussion at the June 1 meeting.
I asked Sheriff Scott Berry today if the county has a problem with the illegal sale of alcohol to minors, and he said it does.
He said his office has a vigorous effort underway to enforce the law and that he had met with representatives of QuikTrip on Tuesday “about that very issue.”
Berry said he explained to the representatives of QuikTrip that his office will monitor sales, be aggressive in making arrests and seize evidence in support of those arrests.
“Right now, to my knowledge, we don’t have anyone systematically selling” to minors, the sheriff said.
Berry said that QuikTrip plans to operate 24 hours a day and that residents had reason “to be concerned” about public safety at such a station.
In fact, back in June of 2009, when QuikTrip asked the county for a number of variances so it could put the gas station on the 1.3-acre site, its representatives raised the issue of customer safety at the facility during the public hearing.
QuikTrip asked that it not be required to plant a vegetive buffer between the station and the firehouse behind it because of a concern that patrons would purchase beer and wine in the store and then drink it hidden from public view in that buffer. The county proposed the wooden fence that has been used as an alternative.
As part of the license application, QuikTrip had to indicate if “anyone connected with this business” within the last five years “has been found in violation of the ordinances of Oconee County, or any other county or municipality, governing alcoholic beverages licenses.”
QuikTrip chose to list violations back through April of 1970.
Sheriff Berry told me today he had not reviewed the list and had scheduled his meeting with QuikTrip officials as part of his regular procedure of meeting with representatives of businesses coming to the county.
Racetrac, which operates a similar gas station and convenience store at the intersection of Hog Mountain road and U.S. 441, filed an application in 2009 for its annual renewal of its beer and wine license.
On the application, Racetrac said “it owns numerous convenience stores through the State of Georgia, some of which have had administrative violations.”
The application also said that an employee of Racetrac #51, the station in Oconee County, was issued a citation on May 24, 2007, “because the employee failed to properly calculate the age of the purchaser while entering the ID into the register.”
Berry put it more simply: “Racetrac sold to us.”
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Oconee County Commissioners Rejected Millage Rate Adjustment Option for Balancing Budget
A Half Mill Would Do
Allen Skinner, chief appraiser for Oconee County, thought the Board of Commissioners should have considered an adjustment in the millage rate as it struggled to create the required balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2011, which starts on July 1.
Since most property in the county declined in value as of the Jan. 1, 2010, the reference point for taxes this year, an upward adjustment in the tax rate would not have produced higher taxes for many people, Skinner said.
Skinner told the Board when he met with it on April 13 as part of the public budget meetings that he felt the Board should consider a rate increase of a quarter or a half mill.
Skinner said the Board did discuss the possibility of the rate increase. Instead of making that change, however, it cut near $1.3 million from the proposed budget of $22 million, including $175,000 in contributions to the retirement accounts of county employees, $167,000 to cover increases in employee health care costs increases and $128,000 for the sheriff.
Citizens will pay more to use park and recreation facilities and find reduced hours of service for trash and recycling centers as a result of the budget adjustments.
The county also will cut back $125,000 in investment in infrastructure at the Gateway Business Park on SR 316 near the Barrow County line.
The cutbacks brought the projected expenditures closer to the $19.6 in projected revenue. The difference–$1.1 million--will have to be made up by taking money from the roughly $10 million in surplus held by the county.
All the figures are fluid, however, and can be adjusted even after the first public hearing on the budget at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. As of tonight, the county has not made even a draft of the budget available to the public for review.
The budget is scheduled for approval–following a second public hearing–on June 1.
Skinner told me on Thursday–the day before the assessment notices went into the mail for those property owners whose real property assessments changed–that 10,782 property owners will get a notice.
Of those who get notices, 95 percent will learn that their property assessments have declined, he said.
The Georgia General Assembly has said that assessments can go down but they cannot go up except where an owner actually has made an improvement to the property, which is the case for the remaining 5 percent of the cases, Skinner said.
The county has about 17,000 parcels, Skinner said, so in the remaining 6,000 cases the property values have held the same.
If the Board of Commissioners had increased the millage rate, those 6,000 property owners plus the roughly 700 whose property value increased–or about four in 10 property owners–would have experienced a tax increase.
Those with a decline in assessment value would have gotten a tax cut if the decline in assessed value had offset the increase in the millage rate.
Because declines in assessed values varied, Skinner said, he could not make an estimate as to how many people would have experienced an increase in taxes with either a .25 or .5 mill rate increase.
For those who had experienced an increase, however, the amount would have been relatively modest with either a quarter or half mill increase.
The average price of the 36 new homes that sold in the county last year was $361,717, Skinner told me, while the average price of the 239 older homes sold was $265,079.
For the average new home owners–who would not have experienced any decline in assessment value–property taxes would have gone up $36 with a quarter mill increase in the tax rate and $72 for a half mill.
For the average new owner of the older home–who also would not have experienced any decline in assessment value–property taxes would have gone up $26 with a quarter mill increase and $52 with a half mill increase.
At the level of the county, the impact of the change in millage rates is easy to assess.
The net assessed value of county property–gross value minus exemptions–on Jan. 1, 2009, was $1.651 billion, Skinner said. That figure on Jan. 1, 2010, was $1.584 billion, representing a decrease of 4 percent for this year.
Assessed value is 40 percent of real value, meaning that the net digest in real value for the county is about $4 billion.
The existing tax rate of .006686 would produce $10.6 million in tax revenue if all taxes were collected and if no appeals of assessment were successful.
An increase of a quarter of a mill would produce just less than $11 million in revenue, while an increase of a half mill would produce $11.4 million. That was the amount of money expected to be produced by the current millage rate for the $1.651 million in property value for the current fiscal year.
So at the level of the county–not at the level of the individual property owner–a millage rate increase of half mill would not have produced a revenue increase. Rather the increase would have been the adjustment needed to hold the income level steady.
The actual intake from the tax generally is less because of appeals and unpaid taxes. Jeff Benko, finance director for the county, told the Board he was expecting only $8.9 million in property tax revenue for Fiscal Year 2011, down from $9.8 a year ago.
The remainder of the revenue for the county’s general fund comes from sales tax and administrative fees.
The difficulty of budgeting is that the county has to guess at revenue levels while planning for the real expenses of county government. If, during the year, revenues go up or down, the county has to amend the budget accordingly.
Skinner ultimates reports to the Board of Assessors and only indirectly to the BOC. He does not report to elected Tax Commissioner Harriette Browning, who handles tax collections.
Given the complexity of the budget issue, it is doubtful many citizens will raise questions about the fundamental budget assumptions at the public hearing on Tuesday night. They may raise questions about the priorities reflected in the budget request cutbacks.
The regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners follows the public hearing on Tuesday night, and it contains further discussion of the 2011 fiscal year budget and the possible relocation of county offices from the Courthouse Annex to the Government Annex to save money in future budgets.
Also on the agenda is an update on the Hard Labor Creek Reservoir project in Walton County, which is creating lots of pressure on the Utility Department. One result is a proposed increase in water and sewer rates for the coming year.
For those who have been following the construction of the QuikTrip located at the busy intersection of Daniells Bridge road and the Oconee Connector, the agenda includes a discussion of the alcohol license application for the gas station and convenience market.
+++
A reader caught a stupid mistake I made in the first version of this article. I used "mileage" rather than "millage" throughout. I even made the mistake in the note to my listserv members. I apologize and thank the reader for the correction.
Allen Skinner, chief appraiser for Oconee County, thought the Board of Commissioners should have considered an adjustment in the millage rate as it struggled to create the required balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2011, which starts on July 1.
Since most property in the county declined in value as of the Jan. 1, 2010, the reference point for taxes this year, an upward adjustment in the tax rate would not have produced higher taxes for many people, Skinner said.
Skinner told the Board when he met with it on April 13 as part of the public budget meetings that he felt the Board should consider a rate increase of a quarter or a half mill.
Skinner said the Board did discuss the possibility of the rate increase. Instead of making that change, however, it cut near $1.3 million from the proposed budget of $22 million, including $175,000 in contributions to the retirement accounts of county employees, $167,000 to cover increases in employee health care costs increases and $128,000 for the sheriff.
Citizens will pay more to use park and recreation facilities and find reduced hours of service for trash and recycling centers as a result of the budget adjustments.
The county also will cut back $125,000 in investment in infrastructure at the Gateway Business Park on SR 316 near the Barrow County line.
The cutbacks brought the projected expenditures closer to the $19.6 in projected revenue. The difference–$1.1 million--will have to be made up by taking money from the roughly $10 million in surplus held by the county.
All the figures are fluid, however, and can be adjusted even after the first public hearing on the budget at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. As of tonight, the county has not made even a draft of the budget available to the public for review.
The budget is scheduled for approval–following a second public hearing–on June 1.
Skinner told me on Thursday–the day before the assessment notices went into the mail for those property owners whose real property assessments changed–that 10,782 property owners will get a notice.
Of those who get notices, 95 percent will learn that their property assessments have declined, he said.
The Georgia General Assembly has said that assessments can go down but they cannot go up except where an owner actually has made an improvement to the property, which is the case for the remaining 5 percent of the cases, Skinner said.
The county has about 17,000 parcels, Skinner said, so in the remaining 6,000 cases the property values have held the same.
If the Board of Commissioners had increased the millage rate, those 6,000 property owners plus the roughly 700 whose property value increased–or about four in 10 property owners–would have experienced a tax increase.
Those with a decline in assessment value would have gotten a tax cut if the decline in assessed value had offset the increase in the millage rate.
Because declines in assessed values varied, Skinner said, he could not make an estimate as to how many people would have experienced an increase in taxes with either a .25 or .5 mill rate increase.
For those who had experienced an increase, however, the amount would have been relatively modest with either a quarter or half mill increase.
The average price of the 36 new homes that sold in the county last year was $361,717, Skinner told me, while the average price of the 239 older homes sold was $265,079.
For the average new home owners–who would not have experienced any decline in assessment value–property taxes would have gone up $36 with a quarter mill increase in the tax rate and $72 for a half mill.
For the average new owner of the older home–who also would not have experienced any decline in assessment value–property taxes would have gone up $26 with a quarter mill increase and $52 with a half mill increase.
At the level of the county, the impact of the change in millage rates is easy to assess.
The net assessed value of county property–gross value minus exemptions–on Jan. 1, 2009, was $1.651 billion, Skinner said. That figure on Jan. 1, 2010, was $1.584 billion, representing a decrease of 4 percent for this year.
Assessed value is 40 percent of real value, meaning that the net digest in real value for the county is about $4 billion.
The existing tax rate of .006686 would produce $10.6 million in tax revenue if all taxes were collected and if no appeals of assessment were successful.
An increase of a quarter of a mill would produce just less than $11 million in revenue, while an increase of a half mill would produce $11.4 million. That was the amount of money expected to be produced by the current millage rate for the $1.651 million in property value for the current fiscal year.
So at the level of the county–not at the level of the individual property owner–a millage rate increase of half mill would not have produced a revenue increase. Rather the increase would have been the adjustment needed to hold the income level steady.
The actual intake from the tax generally is less because of appeals and unpaid taxes. Jeff Benko, finance director for the county, told the Board he was expecting only $8.9 million in property tax revenue for Fiscal Year 2011, down from $9.8 a year ago.
The remainder of the revenue for the county’s general fund comes from sales tax and administrative fees.
The difficulty of budgeting is that the county has to guess at revenue levels while planning for the real expenses of county government. If, during the year, revenues go up or down, the county has to amend the budget accordingly.
Skinner ultimates reports to the Board of Assessors and only indirectly to the BOC. He does not report to elected Tax Commissioner Harriette Browning, who handles tax collections.
Given the complexity of the budget issue, it is doubtful many citizens will raise questions about the fundamental budget assumptions at the public hearing on Tuesday night. They may raise questions about the priorities reflected in the budget request cutbacks.
The regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners follows the public hearing on Tuesday night, and it contains further discussion of the 2011 fiscal year budget and the possible relocation of county offices from the Courthouse Annex to the Government Annex to save money in future budgets.
Also on the agenda is an update on the Hard Labor Creek Reservoir project in Walton County, which is creating lots of pressure on the Utility Department. One result is a proposed increase in water and sewer rates for the coming year.
For those who have been following the construction of the QuikTrip located at the busy intersection of Daniells Bridge road and the Oconee Connector, the agenda includes a discussion of the alcohol license application for the gas station and convenience market.
+++
A reader caught a stupid mistake I made in the first version of this article. I used "mileage" rather than "millage" throughout. I even made the mistake in the note to my listserv members. I apologize and thank the reader for the correction.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Oconee County Ballot for July 20 Primary Set, Regardless of what BOE Does
Not Open To The Public
Voters in the July 20 primary could well be a little confused if the Oconee County Board of Education follows through with its proposed method for filling the vacancy left when Tom Breedlove resigned from the Board on May 10.
At a specially called meeting on May 19, the BOE decided to invite the four candidates who have filed for Democratic and Republican primaries on July 20 to ask instead to be considered for the Post 5 position Breedlove vacated.
The problem is that the names of the three candidates for Post 2–incumbent Mack Guest, Carter Scott Strickland and Mark Thomas–and the sole candidate for Post 3–incumbent Kim Argo–will appear on the ballots as candidates for those posts even if the BOE selects one of them in advance to fill the Post 5 opening.
Fran Crowell in the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration office told me on Friday that the ballots already have been sent off for printing and cannot be changed.
The name of Keith Bradberry, who on May 5 withdrew from his candidacy for Post 2 on the Board of Commissioners, will not be on the ballot, Crowell said, since he withdrew early enough to remove his name.
The Board of Education decided on its peculiar strategy for filling the vacancy created when Breedlove resigned at the suggestion of Board Chairman David Weeks.
According to the minutes of that meeting, Weeks said the Board has filled vacancies in the recent past by accepting applications from the general public. Guest was chosen in this fashion in 2007 and then won reelection in 2008.
Weeks proposed at the May 19 meeting, however, that he ask all four candidates who qualified to run for election for Posts 2 and 3 as Republicans or Democrats to apply for Post 5.
Only if none of the four persons on the ballot were interested in the Post 5 position would he open it up for applications from the public.
Though no vote was taken, according to the minutes, “All acknowledged that they were in agreement.”
That included Guest and Argo, incumbents seeking reelection to Posts 2 and 3 respectively and therefore two of the four individuals Weeks will invited to apply.
Unless someone qualifies to run as an independent during the filing period of June 28 to July 2, Argo will have no opposition in either the July 20 Republican primary or the November general election.
If for some reason Argo were to prefer to serve out the two and a half years of the Post 5 term rather than run for the four years of the Post 3 position, the Board would have to find someone to fill the Post 3 position.
On the face of it, a switch by Argo would seem rather unlikely.
On the other hand, Guest will have to face Thomas in the Republican primary on July 20 and then, if he is successful against Thomas, face Carter Strickland in the November general election as well as anyone who might file as an independent.
Guest obviously had something to gain from the Weeks’ proposal that Guest and the rest of the Board agreed to.
Board of Commissioners member Margaret Hale told me on Friday she had heard rumors that a candidate was surfacing to challenge John Daniell for Post 2 on the BOC via a write-in campaign now that Bradberry has withdrawn.
Jay Hanley, chairman of the Oconee County Republican Party, told me a write-in candidacy is not allowed in Georgia in the primaries.
Hanley said he has heard that someone is interested in filing as an independent to challenge Daniell, and Crowell from the Board of Elections said at least one person has come to the office to inquire about procedures for filing as an independent.
Hanley said that “Daniell is the Republican Party candidate” and that anyone filing as an independent to challenge Daniell will be doing so without Republican Party support.
Hale and Tammy Gilland will be contending for the Republican Party nomination for Post 3 in the July 20 primary.
The Oconee County Chamber of Commerce has scheduled a Political Forum for from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on June 3 at the North Oconee High School Auditorium on Rocky Branch road near Hog Mountain road.
The first hour of the forum is labeled as a “candidate meet-and-greet” and will be followed by an hour of questions of the BOC and BOE candidates by moderator/facilitator Tim Bryant of 1340WGAU radio.
The four candidates for the 113th District in the Georgia State House of Representatives and the single candidate for the 46th District of the Georgia State Senate will follow on the stage for 45 minutes.
Hank Huckaby, Tommy Malcom and Kirk Shook have filed as Republicans and Suzy Compere has filed as a Democrat for the 113th House District. Incumbent Bob Smith has stepped down.
Senator Bill Cowsert has filed for reelection in the 46th District.
Bradberry told me on Friday that he has been dealing with a medical condition that he labeled as “not life threatening but serious” and that he had had under control. “On May 3, it reared its head,” he said, making it necessary for him to withdraw from the race.
Crowell said that Bradberry was not entitled to and did not get a refund of the $594 filing fee he had paid only on April 30.
Argo, Guest, Strickland and Thomas only had to pay $54, so if any one of them drops out of the race to assume the Post 5 position the loss of filing fees will be considerably more modest.
Breedlove resigned from the BOE because he is moving out of the county.
Voters in the July 20 primary could well be a little confused if the Oconee County Board of Education follows through with its proposed method for filling the vacancy left when Tom Breedlove resigned from the Board on May 10.
At a specially called meeting on May 19, the BOE decided to invite the four candidates who have filed for Democratic and Republican primaries on July 20 to ask instead to be considered for the Post 5 position Breedlove vacated.
The problem is that the names of the three candidates for Post 2–incumbent Mack Guest, Carter Scott Strickland and Mark Thomas–and the sole candidate for Post 3–incumbent Kim Argo–will appear on the ballots as candidates for those posts even if the BOE selects one of them in advance to fill the Post 5 opening.
Fran Crowell in the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration office told me on Friday that the ballots already have been sent off for printing and cannot be changed.
The name of Keith Bradberry, who on May 5 withdrew from his candidacy for Post 2 on the Board of Commissioners, will not be on the ballot, Crowell said, since he withdrew early enough to remove his name.
The Board of Education decided on its peculiar strategy for filling the vacancy created when Breedlove resigned at the suggestion of Board Chairman David Weeks.
According to the minutes of that meeting, Weeks said the Board has filled vacancies in the recent past by accepting applications from the general public. Guest was chosen in this fashion in 2007 and then won reelection in 2008.
Weeks proposed at the May 19 meeting, however, that he ask all four candidates who qualified to run for election for Posts 2 and 3 as Republicans or Democrats to apply for Post 5.
Only if none of the four persons on the ballot were interested in the Post 5 position would he open it up for applications from the public.
Though no vote was taken, according to the minutes, “All acknowledged that they were in agreement.”
That included Guest and Argo, incumbents seeking reelection to Posts 2 and 3 respectively and therefore two of the four individuals Weeks will invited to apply.
Unless someone qualifies to run as an independent during the filing period of June 28 to July 2, Argo will have no opposition in either the July 20 Republican primary or the November general election.
If for some reason Argo were to prefer to serve out the two and a half years of the Post 5 term rather than run for the four years of the Post 3 position, the Board would have to find someone to fill the Post 3 position.
On the face of it, a switch by Argo would seem rather unlikely.
On the other hand, Guest will have to face Thomas in the Republican primary on July 20 and then, if he is successful against Thomas, face Carter Strickland in the November general election as well as anyone who might file as an independent.
Guest obviously had something to gain from the Weeks’ proposal that Guest and the rest of the Board agreed to.
Board of Commissioners member Margaret Hale told me on Friday she had heard rumors that a candidate was surfacing to challenge John Daniell for Post 2 on the BOC via a write-in campaign now that Bradberry has withdrawn.
Jay Hanley, chairman of the Oconee County Republican Party, told me a write-in candidacy is not allowed in Georgia in the primaries.
Hanley said he has heard that someone is interested in filing as an independent to challenge Daniell, and Crowell from the Board of Elections said at least one person has come to the office to inquire about procedures for filing as an independent.
Hale and Tammy Gilland will be contending for the Republican Party nomination for Post 3 in the July 20 primary.
The Oconee County Chamber of Commerce has scheduled a Political Forum for from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on June 3 at the North Oconee High School Auditorium on Rocky Branch road near Hog Mountain road.
The first hour of the forum is labeled as a “candidate meet-and-greet” and will be followed by an hour of questions of the BOC and BOE candidates by moderator/facilitator Tim Bryant of 1340WGAU radio.
The four candidates for the 113th District in the Georgia State House of Representatives and the single candidate for the 46th District of the Georgia State Senate will follow on the stage for 45 minutes.
Hank Huckaby, Tommy Malcom and Kirk Shook have filed as Republicans and Suzy Compere has filed as a Democrat for the 113th House District. Incumbent Bob Smith has stepped down.
Senator Bill Cowsert has filed for reelection in the 46th District.
Bradberry told me on Friday that he has been dealing with a medical condition that he labeled as “not life threatening but serious” and that he had had under control. “On May 3, it reared its head,” he said, making it necessary for him to withdraw from the race.
Crowell said that Bradberry was not entitled to and did not get a refund of the $594 filing fee he had paid only on April 30.
Argo, Guest, Strickland and Thomas only had to pay $54, so if any one of them drops out of the race to assume the Post 5 position the loss of filing fees will be considerably more modest.
Breedlove resigned from the BOE because he is moving out of the county.
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