Quick Poll

Do you give annually to the Coweta Can-A-Thon?

Related Story

Blogs

Angela McRae

Tea with friends

Deberah Williams

Everyday Finesse

Lorrie Lynch

Who's News

Published Tuesday, July 29, 2008 in Local

Comprehensive plan, fire district discussed

By Amy Riley

The Times-Herald

Following a presentation by County Administrator Theron Gay at Turin's July council meeting, the mayor and council adopted a resolution to permit the inclusion of a fire district referendum on its November general election ballot.

"The council voted to adopt and encourages support of this resolution," said Mayor Allen Smith. The Turin resolution follows similar resolutions passed by Sharpsburg and Moreland. All three towns were participants in a special fire district established in 1974, which included the unincorporated portions of Coweta County.

The Coweta County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution on July 25 to have the fire district referendum placed on the county's November ballot. Final approval of the referendum will have to come from the Board of Elections, which will meet next week.

The property tax, which will not exceed 20 million and will be repaid over a period of up to 20 years, will fund equipment and other fire services upgrades to meet the demand created by growth in the county, such as new ladder trucks, additional fire stations, and an 800 MHz radio system.

In other business, Mayor W. Allen Smith indicated that a new water rate schedule will be presented at the August council meting.

Henry Booker and Lynne S. Miller, from the Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Development Center in Franklin, provided preliminary procedural information to the mayor and council as to how they might go about updating Turin's Comprehensive Plan, as a result of a request from council.

"You will not be charged to update the Comprehensive Plan," said Miller, planning director for Chatt-Flint, "because we already have your plan in our database.

"Changes to the comprehensive plan can either be considered major or minor plan amendments," said Miller. "Minor amendments can be decided by the mayor and council; major amendments would require public hearings."

A major amendment would be one deemed to increase population by more that 10 percent. Miller and members of her staff will be meeting with Turin's Planning and Zoning Board and council members to help council determine if Turin is looking at major or minor changes.

"If it's major, we bounce it up to the Department of Community Affairs and go from there," added Miller.

"One recent applicant for a subdivision wanted to put some commercial development fronting on a major highway at the front of the proposed residential development," said Mayor Smith. "Changes of this sort might be something we'd need to take a closer look at."

Miller indicated that "the town's zoning will dictate what can be done."

The council heard an update on renovation of the Walter B. Hill School building and scheduled a work session for July 29 to discuss interior material options. The renovated building will eventually house the town's administrative office.

"The space will also house a museum of town and school history," Smith said.

"We're holding on making the payment for the tree removal at the schoolhouse because the bill came in at a different price than what the original quote had stated," said Smith. City officials are waiting on property owners to get back with them before paving of School House Road can begin.

The town of Turin will hold its 14th Annual Tractor Pull and street dance on Aug. 15-16.

"Turin Road will be closed, and we'll start serving food 7 p.m. on Friday night. Live music will begin at 8 and last until 10 p.m.," Smith said.

Comment On This Story

Times-Herald.com does not necessarily agree with the comments posted below. Responsibility of comments rests solely with the writer. Comments posted in ALL CAPS will be deleted.

Submission of a comment does not guarantee publication. Comments will be posted by a moderator after being scanned for abusive language, relevance, etc. See our Comments FAQ for more details.