TOWNS COUNTY CIVIC ASSOCIATION
Board Meeting
October 12, 2022
Hiawassee Garden Clubhouse
Present: John Clemens, Larry Dietsch, Joan Crothers, Gordy Jones, David Best, Michael Courey.
Absent: Anna Denton.
Guest: Jim Olson.
l. President’s Report:
a. Welcome: John welcomed all Board members and 1 guest, Jim Olson.
b. New issues for Discussion
i. Quarterly Newsletter:
1. Discuss Newsletter for Nov. 1: Fully discussed the draft John sent out as to changes, additions and subjects.
2. Topics for January 19th Membership meeting:
History of Towns County: T.C. Historian Jerry Taylor has confirmed.
History of YHC: Rev. Fred Whitley has confirmed.
Current & Future for YHC: Michael will check with Pres. Van Horn, Commissioner and John Wilkinson.
2. Board Officers Reports
a. Secretary’s Report-Joan:
i. Motion made by Michael to approve the minutes of the September 14, 2022 meeting that were emailed to Board members; seconded and passed.
b. Treasurer’s Report-Larry:
i. August balance report: $3,407.90. No income or expenses this month. Motion to approve was made by Michael; seconded and passed.
c. Membership Report-Anna: Not present, but asked if we could meet somewhere else. Michael will check with Liz about meeting in the upstairs meeting room. All present were agreed that would be fine.
d. Website-David:
i. Content is current and he will add another page for the Newsletter. We had 71 blocked hits.
3. Committee Reports
City of Hiawassee-Joan: City of Hiaw.: Water Dept. fixed Tata’s water, and River St. and Bell St. drains were fixed. Window glass in Liz’s office replaced w/double pane glass; Unicoi Parkway at Lloyd’s Landing was honored; Bradshaw donated a van to bring AT hikers to Hiawassee next spring; Halloween at GMF is on Mon. 10/31. ARC (Appalachian Regional Commission) awarded City a $690K grant (70%) to install a boardwalk (8’ wide x 815’ long) from Lloyd’s Landing to Mayor’s Park boat ramp, City cost is the remaining 30%. 10/4/22: voted on Millage rollback rate; also, both cities are in mediation w/the County, wanting larger percentage of LOST (Local Option Sales Tax) they receive (by 12/30/22). Council passed local Hotel/Motel tax raise from 5% to 8% to be spent on “sight-seeing attractions,” arts, signs.
City of Young Harris-Gordy: The old house on the Kiser Dean property, now owned by Dr. Kelley, was used as a training burn by T.C. Fire Dept. The Mayor was very happy about the positive response to Porchfest music event. They plan a public hearing in November on the budget that needs to be approved in Dec. Plans for the Timberline Booster Pump Project should be made public soon.
Commissioner’s Meeting-Joan: 9/19/22: Courthouse offices plan to move to Old Rec. bldg. (900 N. Main St., Hiaw.) Oct. 10-11; GDOT is only patching Hwy.76 thru Towns, turning lane added later. Callie Moore, Western Reg. Dir. of MountainTrue said weeds growing rapidly in Lake Chatuge are Parrot’s feather & Brazilian Elodea from aquarium water being dumped in lake; she hopes cold after drawdown will kill them this winter. TVA will do a full inventory of all weeds next summer. Nov. 12 will be Lake Chatuge cleanup-meet at T.C. Beach area. Anonymous donor gave $3K to T.C. Food Pantry, 1K to CASA, and $1K to AVITA. AVITA CEO gave info. about their organization’s services re: mental health, substance abuse and developmental disabilities.
T.C. Water & Sewer Authority: No report
Chamber of Commerce-John: Local resident Julie Payne has been hired as Chamber President as of November lst.
Convention Visitors Board (CVB)-John: No meeting.
BRMEMC-Michael: Dr. Kelley was at the meeting to petition EMC to put a new power line underground on the Kiser Dean property.
County Planning Commission-David: One resident will pay $200 to cut 5 trees.
County Health Dept.-Larry: The meeting will be Thursday, 10/20 at 9:30 a.m.
Board of Education-Michael: 2022 Graduation will be the night of May 19; BOE put more training days for teachers on the School Calendar. Pay raises for Security Police working games will be given a raise, but not firm yet. Tourists have upped the sales taxes coming in so revenue is above their expectations.
4. New Business from Board Members: None
.5 Old Business
a. New member vote -Jim Olson: A motion was duly made to accept Jim Olson as a member of TCCA; seconded and passed. Jim will attend the T.C. Water & Sewer Authority on Tuesday.
6. Motion to adjourn was duly made at 4:15 p.m.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, 11/9/22 at 2 p.m. upstairs at City Hall.
Joan Crothers, Secretary