Category Archives: Hawkinsville
Government again out of control
I am on the city council in Hawkinsville, Ga. Hawkinsville is a small city with slightly over 4,000 citizens. We provide garbage and trash pickup for our citizens. Garbage pickup is the household garbage that goes in the outside containers that the city picks up weekly. Trash pickup is the limbs, leaves, and other natural debris that is left on the curb. Garbage is hauled to the landfill in Houston County where we pay them so much per pound to accept our garbage. Trash pickup is carried to our inert landfill. The inert landfill is a 3 to 4 acre plot of land where this debris is dumped. Once it gets enough debris there, we hire a contractor to come and mulch all of the limbs, trees, branches, and leaves into a mulch that the contractor then hauls away. The inert landfill also contains a hole where we dump concrete and asphalt from street and sidewalk repairs. It takes several years to fill up even the smallest holes that we dig – we just don’t have that much concrete that needs to be buried.
We have successfully run our inert landfill in this capacity for many years. It does no harm to our environment and provides a cost effective way for the city to handle the trash pickup for our citizens. Our inert landfill does NOT pollute any groundwater and it does NOT cause the creation of methane gas.
HOWEVER, the state EPD (Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources) is proposing a change to the regulations governing inert landfills. These revisions will cost our citizens and lead to greater illegal dumping by citizens. The regulations will require our little inert landfill to be monitored by professional engineers. The initial cost of meeting these requirements will exceed $150,000 with an annual fee of around $12,000 thereafter.
Now I am all for protecting our environment. And I am all for making sure that people do right. EPD’s argument is that some landfills are violating the rules. Some contractors are burying construction debris and then “lost” the documentation on where and how much they buried. But let’s be reasonable and realistic. Let’s go after the violators rather than punishing those of us that have done it correctly.
Our taxpayers, locally, state-wide, and federally, are paying all that they can. We certainly don’t need more government bureaucracy causing an additional tax burden that serves absolutely no purpose. Fine the offenders. Regulate the private landfills. Waive these regulations for the small municipal governments that have always operated correctly and will continue to operate correctly. Don’t punish all of us for the faults of a few!
The Natural Resources Board is scheduled to vote on the proposed rule change at its August meeting. The public can file written comments with the agency until June 21st! You may file comments to:
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Environmental Protection Division
2 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
Suite 1152, East Tower
Atlanta, GA 30334
What is YOUR opinion?
UPDATE: 2/27/13: The EPD did NOT vote in our favor and this rule changed passed the entire board. Rep. Buddy Harden and City Manager Jerry Murkerson both spoke on our behalf but they were not interested in hearing us. However, Rep. Harden has introduced legislation that would exempt cities such as ours. The legislation HAS passed the house and is now in committee. THANK YOU Rep. Harden for your efforts on our behalf…
HB 320, Regulation of Inert Landfills, by Rep. Buddy Harden (R-Cordele), passed the House on Tuesday, February 26, and is now awaiting committee assignment in the Senate. GMA supports this legislation
Shelly
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Wilson Credle
Hawkinsville lost a fine guy this week. I served with Wilson for several years on the Hawkinsville City Commission. A lot of our progress can be attributed to him. He was an extremely intelligent man that cared about this community. We often differed on the “approach” to a challenge, but we seldom differed on the end goal. Wilson’s approach was full steam ahead, don’t worry about the collateral damage. Sometimes – that was what was needed. That approached was not liked by some and it probably cost him the last election, but at times, it was the approach that got the most accomplished.
Hawkinsville has made great strides in the blighted housing category, and much of that success was due to Wilson. He spearheaded the Opportunity Zone. He would take the time to analyze an issue and would often find a stone that we had not overturned.
Wilson was also the best storyteller. His trip to back from Atlanta in a wrecker is one of the funniest stories I have ever heard. And he could tell a joke as good as any standup I have ever seen.
I watched Wilson put his family first. He was willing to make some tough decisions out of love. He didn’t just take the easy route. His love for his children, his grandchildren and Jane was ever visible and present. He admired and complimented Jane at every mention.
Wilson is the reason that we have the PCCLC (Pulaski County Christian Learning Center). He saw the success of that program in another community and challenged Pulaski County to make it happen here. This may prove to be his best legacy in our town. It is already making a difference in people’s lives.
I will miss Wilson. He was a friend. He challenged me not to accept the status quo. I enjoyed discussing ideas and goals with him. I enjoyed our disagreements, because he never took them personally with me. Yeah, he made me mad sometimes, yeah, we disagreed sometimes – but that what friends do. Iron sharpens iron.
Hawkinsville is a better community because of Wilson. How many of us will be able to say that when our time comes?
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Dual Bridges Remain – Hawkinsville WINS
HAWKINSVILLE WINS!
Hawkinsville City Commissioner
Dual Bridges by Mike Newman
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Hawkinsville Bridges – UPDATE
I recently met with Georgia Department of Transportation. They pretty much informed me that we were ONLY going to get ONE bridge. They say the cost to build, maintain, and inspect two bridges is simply more than they are willing to commit. However, their latest revisions include moving the ONE bridge to the Commerce Street side. This solves the one problem of the reduced traffic on Commerce Street, but still adds aggravation.
I have contacted Georgia Tech. They have agreed to do a study on this situation and do a complete traffic analysis. Their report will either conclude that the one bridge idea will NOT work – and that gives me ammunition against GDOT, OR they may conclude that it WILL work. That will hopefully appease my concerns and the concerns of our citizens. We’ll see………
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Why I shop Hawkinsville first
A big shout out to Jodi’s of Hawkinsville. They wrapped over a dozen presents for my office Christmas party right at closing time. I used to hate customers that did that to me when we had the Radio Shack. But they did it with a smile. They have a great selection and shopping local helps your town, your neighbors and ultimately yourself. Shop Hawkinsville first!
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Dilapidated Housing Update
A few years ago, The City of Hawkinsville started the process of cleaning up dilapidated housing in our community. It is a safety issue. It is an economic development issue. It is the RIGHT thing to do! A community group identified about 100 houses that are vacant and past the point of repair. We appointed a group called HURA (Hawkinsville Urban Revitalization Authority) to prioritize this list. Read the rest of this entry
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Preconceived notions / annexation.
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge”
Daniel Boorstin, 1984 Librarian of Congress
The city commission recently was reviewing some water improvement grant work that was actually performed in an area outside the city limits. There are several areas that are physically outside the city limits but they still receive some city services such as water and /or sewage. However since they reside outside of the incorporated areas and therefore do not pay city taxes, we charge a premium fee ( $10.00 per month extra).
We determined that due to the medium valuation of the houses in this particular neighborhood, the residents would actually save a few dollars by being incorporated (annexed) into the city and paying city taxes but not paying the ($10/mo) premium. By being in the city, these residents would also obtain a better fire code rating which would result in additional savings via lower homeowners insurance premiums. So by being annexed, the property owners in this subdivision would save money each and every year. Read the rest of this entry
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City / County Consolidation
There are many citizens that have expressed an interest in the city and county governments consolidating into one entity. This was previously tried in 1999 but the county citizens voted the proposal down. It passed in the city but lost in EVERY precinct in the county. In this post, I am going to try to detail some thoughts, concerns, and suggestions on consolidation.
Personally, I have not made up my mind. I see some benefits and some concerns with this proposal. I will attempt to break down both my concerns and the potential benefits in this post.
Benefit: SIZE Since we are only 4,000+ in the city and 8,000+ in the county (excluding the city), it probably makes since for a community our size to consolidate. There is no need to fight over resources when there are so few resources to go around. I can see an advantage when applying for grants or when presenting ourselves to a potential industry when we can present ourselves as 12,000 strong rather than 4,000 strong. For example, when we apply with DCA for a grant, one of the “blanks” is how many people will this impact. Indicating 12,000 rather than 4,000 has got to carry weight.
Benefit: Cooperation Again, when presenting ourselves to potential industries, I think consolidation will show a spirit of cooperation that would please a prospect. And, although the city and county currently get along fabulously, there is no guarantee in the future if this will be the case. We all hear of communities (read MACON) that continually fight over LOST (Local Option Sales Tax), SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax), and other shared revenues. They also continually bicker over shared expenses. Read the rest of this entry
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The Hawkinsville Dual Bridges
Hawkinsville is a great, small, community located in Middle Georgia. The Golden Isles parkway goes right through the middle of our wonderful town. While most cities on Highway 341 have been bypassed, due to the location of our dual bridges, Hwy 341 comes right through the middle of our town.
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A Step in the right direction…
Hawkinville just received ANOTHER grant. It is for $100,000 to help develop the first part of the river walk located at our city boat landing. Eventually, we hope to have a pathway that extends from the city boat landing (located north of the incoming 341 Bridge) to the county boat landing. That’s about a mile stretch. Needless to say, this will take many many year to accomplish but all journey’s begin with a step. And this grant is certainly a “step” in the right direction. The Ocmulgee River is one of our greatest assests and we have been negligent in not exploiting its potential.
If I am counting right, the city of Hawkinsville can now boast of receiving almost 2 million dollars (that $2,000,000) in grants over the last few years. These grants are helping us improve our quality of life (enhancing our river area, improving the lighting at the Opera House), and improving our aging infrastructure (water and sewage grants along sixth street and Orchard Subdivision), to helping develop affordable workforce housing (which will help us attract industry – which means JOBS)!!!.
A portion of these grants is helping to develop the Cotton Mill Lofts (the old Leshner/PillowTex Mill by the River) into affordable housing as well as a community farmer’s market to help our AG community. A group of us are going to Fitzgerald on Tuesday to see how they have managed and marketed their very successful community market there!
A portion of these grants is helping to finish the infrastructure at our industrial park (and at our Spec Building). While this land/building has certainly cost the city money, I applaud the forward thinking commissioners that decided to invest in our future. Ask any realtor, It’s hard to sell a house without a FOR SALE sign out front. Well, it’s tough to sell a community with out a SPEC BUILDING and LAND available also.
With this economy, our steps are often baby steps, but I honestly believe that we are making steps in the right direction…..
Shelly
Shelly Berryhill 