Connie Webb and Sarah Moore (center) appeared at Thursday's county commission meeting to invite all to Law Enforcement Day this Tuesday.
Officers of the Trenton-Dade Optimists appeared at Thursday’s May meeting of the Dade County Commission to invite all to Tuesday’s is Law Enforcement Appreciation Day festivities. Connie Webb and Sarah Moore urged Dade Countians to turn out at the noon ceremony on May 7 at the new county courts building to honor their local cops.
This is the 14th annual rendition of the event, and County Executive Chairman Ted Rumley reminded the audience that it is always a moving event complete with honor guards and bagpipes. The school band and choir participate, and local law enforcement agencies including the Dade Sheriff’s Office, Trenton Police Department and Georgia State Patrol decorate their outstanding officers and honor those killed on duty during the previous year. It’s a nice opportunity to show gratitude to Dade’s Finest while rubbing elbows with the homies, and a sandwich buffet follows. “We hope to see all of you there,” said Sarah Moore.
Otherwise, the May 2 meeting was a fairly routine lineup of biz-as-usual punctuated by a photo opp here and there and a brief acid bath at the end. Donna Street and Tad Evearitt were reappointed to the public library board. Dade Parks and Recreation employee Stacy Stephens asked for and was granted $10,000 in SPLOST (special purchase local option sales tax) for a gently-used John Deere mower he said would cost three times that much new. Stephens said the new-to-Dade mower would save many man-hours of mowing time at the Four Fields. “Right now we’re having to go over everything twice,” he said.
Up next was Emergency Services Director Alex Case making his regular pitch for new communication equipment. “Our criminals are listening to our law enforcement before they show up,” he said. And: “For the safety of our law enforcement we need to do some upgrading of our radios.” He was granted $72,500 in SPLOST for 25 new radios at $2900 apiece for the volunteer fire departments and a total of $16,000 for six more for 911 backup, not including a matching grant that will lessen the bite.
“This is not a want, this is a have-to,” said District Commissioner Lamar Lowery, in part. “If we didn’t have the SPLOST, we’d be buying these radios out of property tax.”
Last month, the commission had agreed to an uptick in the fees it pays a garbage management company to haul away trash from the county transfer station. This month, it increased its own tonnage rates in order to pass along the increase to consumers. Going forward, residents hauling trash over Dade scales will pay $55 instead of $50 a ton, and rates for commercial haulers will go from $34 to $36 a ton. The commissioners stressed that residents bringing their nine bags or less of trash to the transfer station will continue to do so at no charge.
Rumley and the commissioners discussed a new system that will save law enforcement from transporting prisoners from jails throughout the state to appear before judges: a satellite video link that will be paid for from the jail budget and will allow the prisoners to appear before the judges remotely. “It’ll save us the first year,” said Rumley. County Clerk Don Townsend agreed that one prisoner trip from South Georgia can easily cost the county $1000.
The newest commissioner, Phillip Hartline of District 2, asked consent to charge $15 a pop to yard-salers for space along Highway 11 South abutting the Four Fields county park in the upcoming Antique Alley. Where would the money go? asked Rumley. For stuff needed at the park, said Hartline. “The only issue I can see is potential liability,” said Robin Rogers, the county attorney, whom the commission pays to say things like that. The commissioners agreed to have him prepare and provide a written agreement indemnifying the county against the depredations of the litigious. Antique Alley is the weekend after Mother’s Day.
Historic Preservation Committee members, from left, Don Townsend and Rex Blevins, Sarah Rogers, Sarah Moore (partially) Donna Street and Alex Case.
Sarah Rogers of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources gave a presentation about Dade’s recent ascendance to the ranks of “certified local governments.” She said there were 98 other county and city governments who had made the grade so far. And she explained it was an important step toward netting Dade federal and state grant money for historic preservation of venerable buildings such as the old Dade courthouse.
Dade Transit director Annette Cash spoke briefly before the county commission routinely approved its Title VI plan for the county’s federal transportation grant. She explained that this was a routine matter the county was obliged to perform every year.
The commission designated for surplus, to be auctioned off online, 37 senescent desktop computers, 19 laptops, five printers and a quantity of outdated fire department equipment. If you’re interested, all of those will be listed on govdeals.com within the next 30 days.
Don Townsend said the county’s budget process was nearing completion for Fiscal Year 2020 and added proudly: “This year it is in balance to the penny—so far.” He said his office had been working on it all spring. “We’ve been over every line item,” he said. The budget stands at $10,492,850 for FY2020. “I don’t really foresee any major changes in it,” said Townsend.
Townsend added that it was also time to begin reviewing the project list for SPLOST 2021. The current SPLOST expires in June, he said, and citizens must vote whether to renew it in a referendum that will be on the 2020 presidential primary ballot. He said elections officials were not sure yet what date that would be.
In his monthly report to the public, District 1’s Lamar Lowery said the new emergency broadcast towers—locally dubbed sireens—were up and running at Davis School on Sand Mountain and at the Four Fields. Rumley interjected with an apology about Wednesday’s unexpected sounding of the downtown tower. The siren had gone off by accident while technicians were working on it, he said. The county offices had not been notified and had been just as surprised as Trenton residents, he said.
District 2’s Phillip Hartline said he and Stacy Stephens had been working on replacing the windows in the Four Fields concession stand from the Four Fields' budget. He also stressed that girls’ teams are allowed and encouraged to use the fields for games or practices—just call Stephens and book a time slot, he said. That number is (423) 290-8415. “It’s not just for boys’ baseball,” said Hartline, himself the father of three daughters. Hartline also urged resident to take care of their park and not to throw trash in it.
“And try to watch your children,” added Rumley. The county has had trouble with sand being put down sinks and toilets, he said. “Treat it like it’s your own front yard or your house, because it is,” said the county boss.
District 3’s Robert Goff said SPLOST collections had been back up last month and that the first four months of this year had been better SPLOST-wise than any other four months since the county had kept records.
Allan Bradford of District 4 invited all to the New Salem Fire Department fish fry this afternoon beginning at 5 p.m. He also said he’d started working on organizing another tire amnesty day, which will probably take place in November. He said a new Veterans Administration representative would be available to help local vets the last Wednesday of every month beginning May 29. The VA rep will be at the Administrative Building—call Bradford for additional information at (423) 413-0245.
Bradford also said he’d been meeting with local activist Jennifer Blair—“I call her my treehugger” and the school superintendent about a new recycling program.
County boss Rumley in his own report said money was available from Northwest Georgia Community Action to help pay power bills for the elderly, and asked that residents call his office if they need help with that. That number is (706) 657-4625. He thanked his staff and county constitutional officers for their help in the budgeting process. “Nobody asked for anything they didn’t need,” he said.
And he asked his wife, Diane Rumley, to report on April Festival of Life. She said FOL had netted about $15,000 this year, or about $5000 apiece for the three seriously ill recipients the 2019 FOL was in aid of. “That’s a little more money than they had the day before,” she said.
"Mrs. Boss" brought up another needy case: Chrissy Morrow, a local woman with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, who is unable to work now but still having to make
COBRA health insurance payments. “We get asked to help throughout the year but we don’t save the money,” she said. But a carwash fundraiser has been organized for next week, and a bank account has been set up at Citizens Banks and Trust for donations. Ms. Rumley urged residents to chip in if they could. “Dade County people like to help people,” said Ms. Rumley. “It touches my heart to see how this county comes together and helps people in need.”
Alex Case, speaking now as the mayor of Trenton, announced that work on the new I-59 lighting may cause closures at the Trenton interstate exit Monday night.
Dade Public Library manager Marshana Sharp said that the Glow Run child abuse awareness event the library sponsored last week in conjunction with Dade First had attracted 826 participants. She reminded all of the Parent Café Mother Day Spa at the
library at 6 p.m. next Tuesday, May 7, when kids can give their moms manicures and help with makeup. Also on the library’s May schedule are free vegan cooking classes every Wednesday beginning the 8th at 6:30 p.m. and a free movie (“Symphony of the Soil”) and dinner at 5:30 p.m. on May 21 with a talk about composting. Ms. Sharp put in a plug for the Historical Society’s May 18 Brock Cemetery Walk—4-6 p.m. beginning at Piney Baptist Church—as well. “A lot of the leaders that started this town are buried there,” she said.
Ms. Sharp said that a “huge donation” enabled the library to pay for the movie and dinner on the 21st but asked for RSVPs so there would be enough food on hand. That’s (706) 657-7857. And she said that on May 30 the Georgia Department of Labor is bringing a mobile career center bus for a job fair from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Commissioner Bradford’s tree hugger, Jennifer Blair, spoke during citizens’ participation on behalf of Trenton Tree City, urging citizens to sign the group’s petition asking companies that come into town to add quality of life to their parking lots by breaking up the pavement with trees. Mayor Case has signed, she said. If you want to plant your moniker under the mayor’s call Tree City President Eloise Gass at (423) 883-6388.
Also in citizens’ participation: In what he promised was his farewell performance, John Huffman, whose suggestions the commission had rebuffed last month, this month retaliated with a rage-filled, machinegun-fire litany of accusations and complaints against the commissioners that was often difficult to follow as Huffman crammed in as much vituperation as would fit into the five-minute time slot.
Huffman asked at the beginning of his tirade which of the commissioners represented him and his concerns and ended with the proclamation none of them did. In between was virtually every criticism leveled against the commission in recent history: That instead of posting county jobs they hired “family and friends with proven bad track records”; that they should communicate on the internet instead of bulletin boards; should learn to hold their own cellphones to stream information online instead of hiring the aforementioned family and friends; should have held a public vote about whether to buy land for the proposed Lookout Creek Reservoir instead of “sneaking” past a contract with “ridiculous terms that made jokes of Dade citizens”; should not charge citizens for public information that should already be posted online; should not force citizens to circulate petitions and fight the commission to get SPLOST projects approved years ago accomplished; and much, much more. He drew their attention to his unpaid work as “Your Dade Helper” and said in that capacity he would continue to help the members of their families who needed him.
Pols are people, too
It was not a speech designed to woo and charm its audience and the commissioners were plainly not wooed and charmed. As Huffman wound down and stalked off in, ahem, a huff, Rumley said: “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.” The commission, did, too, strive to represent Dade’s citizens, he said. Commissioner Hartline called Huffman back to the front to tell him he was right on one point: He’d tried talking with Huffman and had gotten so fed up with Huffman’s treatment of him that now he could now say confidently: “I do not represent him, no, I don’t.”
Commissioner Lowery also expressed hurt at Huffman’s treatment. He said Huffman had approached him just after he was elected and: “He wasn’t looking for an answer, he was looking for his five minutes of fame. I got smarted off pretty good for trying to help him.”
“If you’re just going to jump on me for my efforts, I’m not going to do it,” Lowery told Huffman. “I’m a person, too.”
Commissioner Goff reminded Huffman: “We’re doing the very best job we can.” And he said of Huffman’s manifesto: “It seems to me it’s all about me”—“me” being, in this case, Huffman.
What’s next? Broccoli?
Commissioner Bradford did not so much go in for a counterattack of Huffman as an exploration of the apparent present controversies about the Lookout Creek land parcel, which is being leased back to the former owner during the permitting process for the grazing and cattle and cultivation of hay. It seems the landowner’s decision to grow corn on the land instead has raised angry outcries from the populace. Bradford said he, personally, frequently grew corn to mix in with hay for his own cattle. Furthermore, the owner had put in a new gate, which Bradford said was to accommodate the cattle but which critics also said was not jake with the lease.
Here Robin Rogers, the county attorney, was duly consulted. He opined, on the corn v. hay controversy, “I don’t see that as a material difference”; and as for the gate: “If the commission, has a problem. we can go back and ask him to put the original gate back up.”
Which, somehow, was not the end of the discussion. Citizen Jon Talbott then took the podium to say the real question here was: “Are we following the process?” Was corn rather than hay “discrepant” with the lease? If not, the lease should be fixed and the process followed in the future, said Talbott. “If it is minor, where do we stop?” he asked.
Probably it was meant as a rhetorical question.
“We can’t please everyone,” said Boss Rumley in conclusion. “It takes all kinds of people to make the world go around.” He added that he would pray for John Huffman.
The Dade County Commission meets regularly at 6 p.m. on the first Thursday of the month in the county Administrative Building.
