The tension that built up during the McCaysville City Council’s public hearing to discuss the 2020-’21 budget spilled over into a special called meeting of the mayor and council to discuss a OneGeorgia grant available for the city park.
The back-to-back meetings were held last Wednesday, September 2, at city hall.
The police department budget consumed most of the public hearing, which ended with Mayor Thomas Seabolt and Councilwoman Gilita Carter exchanging words after Seabolt said a full-time officer should be added to the force and part-time officers added to fill the gaps.
The special called meeting was held with the intention to decide whether or not the city should use the money it was given in a OneGeorgia grant to upgrade the city park. Although a $300,000 amount was consistently mentioned during the meeting, City Clerk Nancy Godfrey told the council there is still $432,600 available from the grant.
The original award was $500,000.
There are no matching funds required from the city for the remaining money.
Zachary Welch, chairman of the McCaysville Revitalization Committee, attended via Zoom in support of using the grant. He explained time was a big consideration.
The city needs to move forward as quickly as possible, because it has already been granted extensions for using the money.
He also said, “Everything we need to do a contractor can do.”
Delmos Stone, with the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission, attended to explain that there should be no problem with the grant as long as its terms are followed. He explained the necessity of using the competitive bidding process.
Stone also said the city would be required to initially pay for any work and then would be reimbursed by the state. That reimbursement would take 10 to 15 days.
This is where opposition rose to using the money from Carter, saying, “You can’t keep robbing from Peter to pay Paul.”
Councilman Jason Woody, attending by cell phone, said, “We can’t put a bunch of money out there off the bat.”
Councilwoman Sue Beaver said, “The money is there,” and Seabolt said the city still has a $400,000 certificate of deposit (CD) that could be used to make the payments until the reimbursement arrived from the state.
Welch pointed out that the city could likely borrow money against the CD for a very favorable rate.
“There are ways that the city can do this,” Welch told the council.
Beaver, the most staunch supporter of moving forward with the park work, said, “I don’t want the city to have to go backward.”
She and Welch emphasized the money was free.
Seabolt called for a motion to move forward with the grant, which Beaver made and Councilman Larry Collis seconded. Both voted yes and Carter and Councilwoman Susan Kiker voted no.
Woody then voted yes, only to be challenged by Carter and Kiker, Kiker telling him, “You need to say no.” Woody then changed his vote to no, defeating Beaver’s motion.
Woody then made a motion to table the decision over whether or not to move forward with the grant until the Tuesday, September 8, meeting. That motion passed unanimously.
Carter then said, “we’ve got to give this some thought,” to which Seabolt said, “it will be settled one way or another” at the September 8 meeting.