FYN will be running a series of interviews with local candidates from the county commissioners and school board races. Each interview will be published separately and run again before the primary elections May 20.

Bart Connelly, candidate, Pickens County Board of Commissioners, District 1
Bart Connelly is a friend to incumbent Jerry Barnes but he didn’t have any qualms about running for Barnes’ District 1 seat. Although they aren’t at odds on issues, he feels a need to serve Pickens County to a greater degree.

He’s no one-issue candidate either. He’s expressed his wide-ranging views through forums, being vocal at county commission meetings and showing up at nearly every charity event in the county. His experience sitting on the Pickens County Tax Assessors board doesn’t hurt his knowledge of county business either.

What are the three most important issues facing Pickens County?

Budget:

“People have been worried about misspending or misuse of the money. I haven’t found anybody yet who could say anything’s been misappropriated. We’ve gone over the budget in the past for a number of reasons – paying bills, the economic slowdown. It’s always going to be the budget no matter the size of the county.”

“Trying to keep up services and maintaining the quality of life here in Pickens County with limited resources,”

he listed as second.

He also added infrastructure as a concern:

“Roads need improving, the water system may need updating. As the number of residents grow you have to provide these services. That’s one thing that leads to the SPLOST (special purpose local sales tax). If people will look at that we’re going to either have to pay money through the SPLOST tax or we are going to have to increase taxes other ways. The government has no other source of revenue but people paying taxes.”

Do you support a one, three or five person board? Why?

Connelly said three.

“When this first came up with the size of the county I thought we were doing alright with one person but the more I thought about it the more I liked the three commissioner system with the two being part-time. There’s no need for three full-time but it gives you two more sets of eyes and two more theories of thought on all the issues. If you have more people studying it you get more ideas and different viewpoints.”

He explained he doesn’t support the five person board idea due to the size of the county and once you get commissioners with equal “power” there seems to be a pattern of more controversy among members.

“This is a better system. Economically it doesn’t cost much more to have the two district commissioners,”

he said.

What are your thoughts on the water park?

“I would love to see it come in. Where it is proposed now, the nice location on 515, is a good idea. Where it was proposed originally (Highway 136 near Hinton) was inappropriate. It would have been impossible to get to without several miles of road improvement. I think it would be a good tourist attraction close to 515.”

“You have to have an area where you don’t have anyone living around it. I wouldn’t want to have it across from my house. In the long run I think it’ll turn out to be very positive for Pickens County.”

Do you support the SPLOST referendum? Why?

“I support the SPLOST only because it is a sales tax. If you don’t want to pay the tax, you buy less. Of course you have to buy your necessities but with a sales tax you also include any tourists coming through buying gas. Iif they just stop on 515 at the Quick Trip and they buy a tank of gas it contributes to the local economy. It keeps the county from having to raise the property taxes which no one wants to do,” he reported.

He defended the tax saying,

“There have been some negatives in the paper. Such as, if the sheriff’s department wants to buy cars it could come out of the general fund. Well we can get them out of the general fund but you’re going to have to raise taxes to do it.”

“It’s an existing tax, we’re paying it now. Let’s continue to pay it. Instead of using the money to build the courthouse we’re going to use the money for fire departments and roads. We can get a lot of roads fixed with that amount,”

he finished.

If elected, do you have any specific goals in mind for western Pickens County?

“I do but people have to remember we’re elected to represent the whole county. In talking with the commissioner there are water needs where the western side of the county is behind but there are plans in the works to improve those areas.”

How would you propose to combat the ISO rating problem in the county?

Connelly smiled and joked before getting into the seriousness of the issue.

“It’s a mess. Insurance companies have to make money just like any other company out there and they’re getting more critical at looking at how far from a fire station you are, how far you are from fire hydrants. Improving the water system isn’t just running water to all the houses but also making sure we have fire hydrants within that pre-arranged distance to combat fires.”

“We’re going to need a few more fire stations. A lot of fire stations use a lot of volunteers but there are getting to be less volunteers. It doesn’t make any sense to have new fire stations and trucks and not have money to put firefighters there. That’s when you have to look hard at the budget: how many firefighters can you afford to have on-duty and what is the likelihood of putting up a fire station in that area and getting volunteers?”

He said in a family of firefighters the volunteer system works well if you have plenty of people to volunteer but if it’s the same 3-4 men all the time it doesn’t. In addition, he said that there is travel time for the volunteers to get to the station to get the equipment and trucks which is valuable time lost. He said it will come down to a balancing act but he feels that having a paid position supported by volunteers may be the course of action to take.