Larger size developments continue to draw concerns in region
News October 3, 2021
JASPER, Ga. – Expansion, Developments, Density, Population, Zoning, Regulations, Restrictions, and Urbanization have all been connected terms used in a hot topic across the region in recent days, especially in Pickens and Gilmer Counties.
Citizens have gone so far in Gilmer County as to protest larger developments and some have banded together in the Keep Gilmer Rural (KGR) group. Pickens County has also seen citizens speak out against developments and subdivisions. Citizens are reaching out this weekend in concerns over what is reported as 270 apartments being developed just off of Highway 515. This development is currently moving through the governmental process and should be voted on by the Jasper City Council tomorrow, October 4, 2021.
But citizens aren’t waiting passively, instead voicing concerns to council members and to media outlets like FYN about issues of water and location.
The Jasper City Council has yet to post the agenda for the meeting, but FYN’s current understanding is that the item will be discussed at the meeting and voted on.
The KGR group organized a protest in Gilmer County before a Planning and Zoning Meeting debating over large developments in August 2021.
Gilmer residents having voiced concerns over developments, spoken in meetings and online, and even protested against the issue, saw the Gilmer Board of Commissioners look to changes for future developments of larger size. Those changes are on delayed implementation, but the Commissioners have gone through several monthly meetings and even special called meetings deliberating the issue and listening to repeated calls for action of certain issues from numerous different people.
Some citizens in Gilmer are even watching the Jasper City Council on this current issue to see the outcome of its close neighbor due to the similar issues with developments and citizens wanting to keep their county/city more “rural.” After the KGR Protest in Gilmer in August, several people online called for similar action in their areas, even commenting from Gilmer’s northern neighbor Fannin County.
Still others are commenting online about the populations of these counties and the need for something more. Some have spoken in meetings as well. Other comments call out people who are speaking at as people who move to these rural counties and are the same ones asking local leaders to “lock the doors behind them.”
While a Board of Commissioners does not affect or dictate ordinances within city limits and a City Council, likewise, does not dictate outside the city limits, the two entities of Gilmer’s BOC and Jasper’s City Council do operate on similar structures having zonings and developments like this go before a zoning board for recommendations before they give a final vote.
The Jasper City Council meeting will be held at City Hall at 6 p.m. tomorrow, October 4, 2021.
Jasper adjusts millage rate with final consideration Monday
News October 11, 2020
JASPER, Ga. – The Jasper City Council has adjusted their millage rate increase to a lower increase with a motion in their monthly meeting.
The new adjustment was approved by the council in October for the first reading. However, the final adoption will come Monday, October 12, 2020 in a 6:00 p.m Special Called Meeting. That meeting has the sole agenda item for the final adoption of the Rate.
The Millage Rate consideration is now at 5.655 mills, in efforts to balance the general budget.
Councilmember Jim Looney said he appreciated the work that the staff put into the millage rate. On the rate change he stated, “There’s never a good time. It’s also never easy. But I think this is movement in the right direction to allow the City of Jasper to continue on a good road.”
With Monday’s meeting as the last word on the Millage Rate for the coming year, it is one final chance for citizens to be heard on their opinions both for and against the increase to the rate and, therefore, property taxes.
This adjustment is still an increase in the Millage Rate, but it did bring the proposed rate from the original 6.78 mills proposed in September. The increase will now be 1 mill increase over the rate that has been the same for three years now.
The process is not yet done, though, as this is only one of the steps towards finalizing the 2021 Budget. Now that the Millage Rate could see final approval this week. Budget talks will begin soon in efforts to meet the city’s goal for budget adoption. According to City Manager Brandon Douglas, as previously reported in earlier meetings, that goal is to see a final adoption of the budget for the new year by December 7, 2020.
Jasper considers 2.125 mill increase in early budgeting process
News September 25, 2020
JASPER, Ga. – The City of Jasper is holding meetings with citizens to discuss plans to move forward with a major increase of its Millage Rate.
The increase being considered is a 45.6 percent increase over the 4.655 mills that the city has held for three years now. In 2017, the rate was set at 4.655 mills from 2016’s 4.683 mills.
The proposed Millage Rate for 2020 is 6.78 mills. An increase of 2.125 mills.
A comparison sheet shown by City Manager Brandon Douglas in the September 24, 2020, public hearing for the millage rate.
The last time the rate was raised was 2001 when it went from 4.630 mills to 4.710 mills. The last time the millage rate was over 6 mills was 1996 when it was set at 6.850 mills.
According to City Manager Brandon Douglas, he met with the finance department and department heads, they found that normal operating costs produced a preliminary 2021 budget held a deficit of roughly $551,000. He also noted that indications pointed to a two to two-and-half percent increase in revenues while expenditures increase at three to five-and-a-half percent per year.
Douglas said, “That is not a sustainable financial model.”
He went on to say that the city needs corrective action for the finances. The gap between revenue and expenditures that the city is seeing has come from not correcting these issues sooner.
Douglas also noted the importance of property taxes as they make up 30 percent of the total revenue budget for the city. Many of the sources of revenue that make up the other 70 percent are unknown or not directly controlled by officials and the city. This puts the point of the property tax as something directly controlled by these elected officials.
There will be another meeting of the city at 5:30 p.m. on October 5, 2020, to hear more from the public on the proposed millage rate as Douglas stated, “It is staff’s goal to work with the elected officials through this public hearing process to recommend and adopt a millage rate that is reflective of providing a balanced budget. It is not our goal to just simply adopt a 6.78 millage rate.”
He noted that by the October 5 meeting of the Jasper City Council, he hopes to have gotten with officials through their committees to identify “ways to reduce certain preliminary department budgets.”
As a part of the budget process, the millage rate is adopted before the budget is adopted. The plan for the 2021 budget, according to Douglas, is adoption on December 7, 2020. Working towards that goal. This process is way to see what the budget could look like in order to have the budget in mind while adopting the millage rate which must be adopted first before the actual budget is adopted.