With council member Tony Fountain saying it shows the city and county can work together, Jasper council members approved a new fire service agreement during their regular meeting Monday evening.
The agreement, negotiated over the weekend between the county and city, recognized that Jasper fire crews will continue to respond to fire calls outside the city limits and in exchange will see the county continue to participate in road work inside the city limits.
The county will take over as primary fire responder at the airport and with first responder calls in areas outside the city limits, according to a follow-up interview with Commissioner Rob Jones.
As part of the deal, “a tally sheet” showing work or calls performed by each government will be kept to even out the services, but no money will change hands between Pickens County and the City of Jasper.
Council member Jim Looney said he approved of the “bartering of services” between the city and its fire department and the county and its road crews.
Mayor John Weaver said he had negotiated and met with Commissioner Jones several times on this subject, including some final meetings over the past weekend, to have the agreement ready to present by the Monday night council meeting.
The agreement should have been turned in to the state last Friday to meet a deadline. Weaver said being a few days late was “no big deal” as long as it is taken care of this week.
“For a while it looked like we might have some issues,” he said. “But I am very pleased with how it worked out.”
Commissioner Jones said this agreement may apply to more than fire calls. He said they would keep up with all work performed in the other government’s service area.
Jones also said he thought the agreement signaled a more
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workable relationship between the city and county.
Weaver noted the county had the capability to assist the city in paving and mowing inside the city. He also noted the county had funded a traffic signal inside the city limits in a previous year and is currently providing some funds to assist in repairing the wooden bridge at Chambers Street and Main.
Weaver said the past cooperation had “laid the framework for this agreement.”
“The City of Jasper is providing a service, but we’ll get in-kind service such as paving in return while the county is getting up-to-speed with their fire protection,” he said.
In other business:
• State Representative Tom Graves was recognized by the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) and the city council for being “a friend of cities.”
A representative from GMA said Graves was one of 19 state legislators to receive this honor this year. He was presented an archive photo of Main Street Jasper.
Lamar Norton of GMA said of Graves’ work in the legislature, “He seems to get it right more often than he misses.”
In brief remarks, Graves thanked GMA for the recognition and praised Jasper, saying it was one of the great cities in Georgia, and that Mayor John Weaver makes an effort to be involved in important legislative issues at Atlanta with several trips to the capitol each year.
Millage Rate approved
The council approved a property tax rate of 4.69 mills for the upcoming year, the same as the current property tax rate.
The property taxes are projected to produce $1,048,066 in revenue, an increase of $186,000 over this year, due to higher assessed values on commercial property on the digest.
City Financial Director Tacie Williams said the higher values assessed on commercial properties this year allow the millage rate to be held steady even as the city projects reduced sales tax revenue.
Williams said the budget for next year has not been completed but is in the final stages.
Responding to a question from the council, she said, while not finished, “the skeletal budget” is near enough that they can set the millage rate and be comfortable that the projected revenue will be sufficient.
Williams noted that the reassessed values are handled by the county tax assessor’s office and are not subject to city influence.
Mayor John Weaver said, “The reassessment is in commercial property. Residential tax bills should remain the same.If it was about $200 last year, then it will be about $200 again this year.”
Weaver said if the economy picks up next year and the city collects more sales tax, they will roll back the millage rate and give both commercial and residential property owners a break.
“We could have rolled it back this year if there hadn’t been such a downturn in the sales tax collections,” he said.
The council voted unanimously to approve a millage of 4.69 with the standard exemptions.
Williams said they should have a final budget ready for the council by the December meeting.
In other business:
• The council voted to contract with a debt collection agency to see if they can recover some of the more than $30,000 in unpaid water bills from customers who are no longer on the city system with accounts more than one year old.
Williams said they will continue to use normal procedures for existing customers. This is for people who are no longer city customers but left an unpaid debt more than the deposit they paid when originally connected to the city system.
• Williams reported reaction had been mixed to the announcement last month that the city is raising water rates. “We had some customers who said they understood and didn’t see why we didn’t do it sooner, and we had some not happy at all with it,” she said.
• Weaver said he had met again with contractors for repairing the wooden bridge, and they will still honor an earlier quote of refurbishing the landmark wooden structure for roughly $80,000. Weaver said they should be able to start work in January.
• During discussion of the minutes, Councilman Jim Looney noted a request at the October council meeting for greater general communication between city hall and council members was not recorded in the minutes from that meeting. The need for improved communication is real, Looney noted, and not an issue to be ignored.
The call for improved communication was not cited at all in the minutes. Looney said this is a subject that he wants to see move forward with more communication of some type between city hall and council members.
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