Funding requests continue to dominate county sessions

By Lisa Majors-Duff

Representatives of at least three different agencies appeared before the board Thursday and Friday (June 7 and 8) to make requests for additional funding. Barbara Carlton of Cashiers, speaking on behalf of the Albert Carlton-Cashiers Community Library, requested a $100,000 commitment from the board to be applied toward a $1 million renovation of the facility. In just six years, she said, the library has outgrown the community.

"We are more than a library," Carlton said. "We are a cultural center for Cashiers."

She and others on the library board presented commissioners with a proposal to renovate the library during a meeting last fall in Cashiers. The group said they would raise half the necessary funds so that more computers, more meeting space and more parking could be furnished at the site.

"We will take care of all the headaches," she told the board last week. "All you have to do is come to the ribbon cutting."

County Manager and Budget Officer Jay Denton told Carlton that he did not include the full amount of the request in the proposed budget due to expected shortfalls. Some $84,530 has been proposed for operations at the Cashiers Library in fiscal year 2001-02, he said.

"It seems to me that if you are getting half the funding, then that would make this a high priority," Carlton said.

A second request for additional funds came from Lisa Lehman, director of the board of elections. She asked commissioners to consider spending $14,000 for a scanner to read absentee ballots, which currently must be counted by hand.

"This won't be like Florida," she told the board. "We will count every ballot. If the scanner can't read them, they will be counted by hand."

More than 4,000 absentee ballots were counted during last year's general election, a number Lehman said is approaching too many not to be affected by human error.

"If the public is concerned about an outcome, the result could be opening liability for the county that it can't afford," she said.

Also, Lehman said she'd like the commissioners to consider allowing her office to spend $1,275 toward a heat pump for the Savannah Fire Department, which also serves as a polling place.

"Most precinct workers are retired, and we'd like to make it as comfortable as possible for them," Lehman said. "We'd also like to work with the Savannah Fire Department since our presence means extra work for them."

"I'd like to honor this request," said Commissioner Roberta Crawford, who pointed out that the request was actually half the cost of installation. "I think the fire department deserves it."

"I took it out because it did not seem like a board of elections expense," Denton said. A final request for additional funds came from Highlands Town Administrator Richard Betz through a letter to the board. He requested the county pay the town of Highlands $13,421 to the cost of providing fire protection to three Jackson County developments - Wildcat Ridge Country Club, Cullasaja Club and Highlands Falls Country Club.

Highlands assesses its residents a fire tax at the rate of .011 cents per $100 valuation. At this rate, Betz said, these communities would be required to contribute $13,241 if they were located within the Highlands town limits.

A similar request for funds was made last year, to which the commissioners responded by giving the town of Highlands $3,000. The budget proposal for next year includes $3,150 for Highlands fire protection.

The result of not meeting Highland's demand, said county emergency services coordinator Mike Ensley, is that the Macon County fire department could move its district lines and not provide primary coverage for these communities. Such a change could mean an increase in fire insurance for these residents of at least 30 percent, he said.

"(These residents) are taxpayers, heavy taxpayers," Commissioner Conrad Burrell said. "But there's no way (the Cashiers-Glenville Fire Department) could answer these calls considering the condition of (U.S. 64) and the traffic."

Though they seems primed to act on at least some of the requests, commissioners agreed not to make any changes to the proposed budget until after the public hearing, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 19, at the Justice Center.

In other business to come before the board, commissioners approved a resolution expanding the Whittier Sanitation District pending a review of the document by county attorney Raymond Large. The expansion is necessary to conform with the requirements of a grant the board received to build a sewer treatment plant in Whittier that will service the community, Smokey Mountain Elementary School and the county's industrial park.

Board members also approved the appointments of Cecil Dills as county tax assessor, a formality required annually, and Daniel Allison to the Board of Social Services.

They did not, however, approve a request from Sam Lupas to abandon a 180-foot portion of Lloyd Hooper Road (SR 1154) in Yellow Mountain community. Lupas stated during the board's last regular meeting that he intended to install a gate, behind which he planned to develop his property. He also indicated that he was willing to reimburse the state Department of Transportation for funds used to pave the portion of road he requested be closed.

The next regular meeting of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners will be held Thursday, June 21, at 5 p.m. at the Justice Center.

Back to Archive: 06/14/01.