Moore talks infrastructure in first meeting as mayor

As promised, retired mayor Jim Conley, who stepped down from office last month, attended the regular City Council meeting as a member of the public, and Mayor Moore asked him to lead the Pledge of Allegiance to kick things off last week.

In their first order of business, council members selected a new mayor pro tempore. Moore had been the longtime mayor pro tem before his appointment to mayor last month, and that Tuesday, the council nominated and selected Councilwoman Rhonda Mahan to fill the position for 2025.

If Moore should ever become unable to fulfil his duties as mayor for any reason, Mahan will lead the city as mayor in a temporary capacity. Mahan has served as mayor pro tem in the past, having been on the council since January 2002.

Two big infrastructure discussions highlighted the meeting, one involving a major project at the Blairsville Airport and another having to do with gauging the city’s interest in expanding its sewer system.

Several years ago, the city was awarded a $2.5 million grant through the state to level the local runway to correct a line-of-sight issue along its length as well as to extend the Runway 8 approach to improve safety for incoming pilots.

This project will help the city move closer to its goal of hosting an officially designated Regional Airport.

It will be an extensive project requiring land and easement acquisition for obstruction clearing, after which the runway will need to be torn up and re-poured, necessitating the airport’s closure for a time. Closure estimates have ranged from two to 12 months.

Citing a more frequent safety issue, members of the city’s Airport Advisory Board have recommended changing the project from a runway overhaul to the installation of a taxiway to keep planes off the runway when they need to be moved.

Moore said he understood the need for a taxiway but that changing the project now introduces unknowns they do not have time to adequately address, especially since money has already been spent on the runway project.

For example, it is unclear if the grant money can simply be shifted over to a new project after having been approved to level the runway. Hovering over all of this is the fact that the clock is ticking on utilizing the grant; if another drawdown is not made soon, the grant could expire.

Ultimately, the council agreed with Moore’s reasoning, voting unanimously to continue the runway project as planned.

The airport is busier than ever, according to Airport Manager Dan Firebaugh; improvements there remain a priority for the city, and Moore said City Hall would revisit the creation of a taxiway in the future.

As for the sewer extension discussion, Moore said he had heard that the Blairsville Cinema was struggling to expand for lack of septic capacity. The movie theater is about 3 miles east of where the sewer lines stop at city limits.

Factoring in loan forgiveness, the cost to run 3 miles of sewer lines would be about $3.8 million to the city, and Moore was wanting to know if the council had any appetite for taking on debt while increasing sewer rates by as much as 20% to make it happen.

Such an expansion would potentially benefit everyone in that stretch of Georgia 515, upping the commercial development value of properties there, and City Attorney Marvin Harkins said such deliberations usually included planning to account for future development and growth.

City Clerk Kaye McCann said that 18 of 22 parcel owners on GA 515 who responded to a survey from City Hall showed interest in hooking up to city sewer.

Moore asked former mayor Conley’s opinion, and he said, “If the city can afford to do it, I say go for it.”

Councilwoman Mahan expressed reservations about the affordability, noting that “everyone’s rates would have to go up, and do we really want to increase everyone’s rates right now in this economy?”

“That’s the question,” Moore said, adding that the reason he was bringing the issue up now was that the city’s engineer is looking to make a June 1 application deadline for grant money to help with the project.

Referencing the commercial benefit of expanding the lines outside city limits and into the county’s jurisdiction, Councilwoman Mary Ruth Cook asked, “But with the present commissioner, is he going to let those developments happen?”

“That’s my question, too,” Councilwoman Kayla Hemphill said.

Fire Chief David Dyer chimed in from a public safety standpoint, noting that new commercial development there would increase the number of properties local first responders would be responsible for protecting.

Moore and the council decided to table the discussion for a future meeting, and the mayor said he would be in touch with engineers for details on doing the project in phases, perhaps a half mile at a time.

In other business, Moore asked the council to consider providing “Paid Parental Leave” for city employees. He and the council expressed surprise that they did not already offer this, and the council approved six-week maternity/paternity leave for employees with new babies at home.

During his monthly Department Head report, Blairsville Police Chief Michael “Bear” Baxter commended local and state law enforcement for safely ending the midday pursuit of a suspect who attempted “to run over two deputies” at the Union County Sheriff’s Office on March 7.

There have been three chases in the city over the last month, all of which Baxter said were conducted with considerations for safety to the public and severity of violation, resulting in the first of the three chases being called off and the eventual apprehension of that suspect.

“We’ve been criticized, Sheriff (Shawn) Dyer’s been criticized, (but) we made the right decision,” Baxter said of the March 7 chase. “If we didn’t stop him, something bad was going to happen to somebody else.

“For all those people who are second guessing that, that’s what happened. And I’ll stand right here and tell anybody that, and I have since it happened. We would love to say that we control these chases – we don’t. And thank God nobody was hurt in this thing.

“As y’all know, we don’t know why all this is happening all of a sudden. In general, it’s not just us, it’s the counties around us who are having lots of things go on, so it’s just different times.”

Mayor Moore called for a round of applause to honor the efforts of local law enforcement keeping residents safe.

Moore also asked council members to approve – which they did – a proclamation recognizing the Union County High School Boys Basketball Players for their outstanding accomplishments this season, finishing runner-up at state. The proclamation will be presented to the team soon.