Board hears economic hit from virus
The Fannin County Board of Commissioners voted, Tuesday, May 12, to renew the county’s work detail agreement with the Georgia Department of Corrections at a cost increase of $10,000 to the county.
The county was paying $39,000 and the new contract will cost $49,000.
“This increase is due to the fact that they’ve not changed that detail rate in several years,” Chairman Stan Helton said. “They needed to do that to keep up with the correction officer’s base salary that they have now.”
Post Two Commissioner Glenn Patterson said, “It’s kind of a hard time to get that increase in the pandemic. I do understand what you’re saying about it. It’s been awhile since they’ve had an increase, and they do a wonderful job, they really do. I just, like I said, I hate to have an increase at this time, but if that’s what it takes, I think that would be worth it.”
Post One Commissioner Earl Johnson believes an incremental change would have been better, stating, “It should have been in an incremental deal rather than $10,000 in a year. … It was a very good deal for the amount of workers we get, but when you start talking about $50,000 a year it becomes a lot less attractive to me.”
According to Helton, the costs “comes down to $2.50 an hour.”
“That’s a pretty good rate, even at that,” Helton said.
“In the last year, they’ve been very helpful, very effective, on trash pick-up and helping with trimming and weeding areas around the county roadways, particularly guard rails,” Helton said.
Helton and Patterson voted to renew the contract, however Johnson voted against it.
“We might could look into searching for someone to contract out for specialized help rather than supervised help,” Johnson said before the vote. “That cost is not all the cost we incur in a year. We still have to provide them with the equipment, transportation and everything. I, myself, am not interested in the increase.”
The contract will run through July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. The workers are currently unable to work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, according to Helton, they may be able to return as early as June or as late as August or September.
They do not get paid if they are not working.
During the meeting, Fannin County Chamber of Commerce President Jan Hackett discussed the effect the pandemic has had on the economy so far.
According to Hackett, around 61% of cabin rentals were set to be full the weekend of May 15.
“They were pretty full last weekend, but they’re bringing their supplies, according to the public that I talked to, spending a lot of time in the cabins, and we haven’t really seen any big crowds forming in downtown Blue Ridge or other places,” she said. “They’re planning their trips late. It’s like people are just deciding to come to the mountains within a week.
This weekend is 61% booked, Memorial Day weekend, according to the statistics that I get, is 55% booked, but June and July are still looking really low.”
She said, according to statistics from AirDNA, the May 30 weekend is currently 30% booked, June 6 is 27% booked and July 4 is 24% booked.
She said the Hotel/Motel Tax was down $60,000 in collections for April based on March business. That’s a loss of $30,000 for both the county and the chamber.
“We expect to be down as much as $100,000 in May because there were very few bookings in April,” Hackett said.
According to Hackett, of the 52 restaurants they’ve been keeping up with in the county, only 13 are open to inside dining at this time: Cantaberry, Chester Brunnenmeyer’s, Southern Charm, Danielle’s Cafe, Kizuna Japanese Restaurant, Boat Dock Bar & Grill, Mesquite Grill, Toccoa Riverside, Blue Coyote, Burra Burra on the River, Katz’s Deli and Twisted Tomato.
“You’re really just kind of looking at, ya know, 20%, or something like that, of the restaurants that we have that are actually open,” Hackett said. “As far as shops go, in Blue Ridge downtown, we think that about 90% of the shops are open at least part of the week and weekend. In McCaysville, 50%.”
Hackett said that Cesar Martinez has explained that the downtown Blue Ridge businesses have been busy during the weekends, but “very slow” during the week. However, he relayed that they are still not as busy as they were last year at this time.
“It’s an odd time for everyone in Fannin County, and hopefully in the upcoming weeks we will be able to see how opening back up goes,” Johnson said. “I think it will be a waiting game for all of us.”
Helton announced that the county would be receiving a check in the amount of $32,958 for the county’s share of a cash return for qualifying members from ACCG Insurance Programs/Group Self-Insurance Worker’s Compensation Fund.
“This is something new, and it’s extra from what we’ve received in the past, an additional compensation check and we will put that into the General Fund and make good use for it,” Helton said.