McCaysville City Councilmember Susan Kiker is the new police commissioner, a OneGeorgia grant has been extended, over $30,000 in spending was approved, and a house now on city park property was considered for sale or lease.
These were the items taken up by the McCaysville City Council during its regular meeting Tuesday, August 11.
Mayor Thomas Seabolt swapped the responsibilities of two councilwomen, moving Sue Beaver to oversee the city park and Kiker to oversee the police department.
In making the change, he said it was within his power as mayor.
Thomas also presented a notice from the OneGeorgia Authority that the term of the special purpose award to improve the park has been extended through December 31, 2020.
The notice came in response to the city’s request for an extension and stipulated the next progress report will be due by December 31 and a final report is due once the project is complete.
The $500,000 award was presented to the city in June 2017.
Approximately $300,000 still remains. In previous council meetings, city officials talked about using the money for pavillions and other upgrades. There was no disucussion last Tuesday.
At the request of Councilman Jason Woody, $6,500 was approved for Turnipseed Engineers to apply for a Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) loan to pay for new water meters.
An agreement with Goodwyn, Mils, Cawood for withdrawal permit reports for the water plant was approved at a cost of $24,750, bringing the total for the two expenditures to $31,250.
Council members learned that 30% of the CARES Act money the city expects to receive has already been deposited in the city account.
It was agreed a list needs to be prepared of expenses the city has already paid due to COVID-19 so the money can be used.
Seabolt said a current city employee is interested in renting the house on the city park property in return for maintaining the park.
At that point, Councilwoman Gilita Carter introduced Kurt Robbins who owns a house on East Tennessee Avenue and is interested in buying the city park house.
The council agreed to have the house appraised and see what legal steps would need to be followed for a sale.
Police Chief Michael Earley said officers were dispatched to 112 calls in July.
He reported arrests were down because officers will issuecitations for violators to come to city court whenever possible because of COVID-19.
This lessens the chance of the virus entering the Fannin County Detention Center.
He did say two separate arrests were made for aggravated assault, one of the incidents occurring at the city park.