Immediately after county commissioners expressed their thanks for the fine work by the public works and other departments during the recent snow storm, the Catoosa County Chief Financial Officer Carl Henson offered an estimate of its cost.
A report filed with Georgia Emergency Management Agency estimates the cost of clearing snow from nearly 800 miles of county roads at $86,000.
Henson said the largest expenditures were for overtime pay – some individuals had 50 hours of overtime – and the expense of operating equipment.
About $26,000 could come from the local budget, and it is not known if statewide losses will meet qualification standards for federal disaster assistance.
In addition to praising efforts to plow and replow county roads, it was noted that about 30 EMS and fire service calls were answered during the first, and worst, snowy days. Commissioners were told that in cases where roads proved too slick for vehicles to move, crews had answered those calls by driving as far as they could and then walking the rest of the way.
And while emergency personnel were doing their jobs, County Manager Mike Helton told the commissioners that it was only after main and side roads were cleared that county offices could function properly.
Part of the problem was that many offices could have opened but there were no workers on hand to do the jobs.
“We could use a few four-wheel drive vehicles to get staff to and from work,” Helton said.
Catoosa County Fire and Rescue Station 7 now open
A grand opening was held yesterday afternoon at the county’s newest fire hall, Station 7, located near the intersection of Lakeview and Enterprise drives.
Firefighters, their gear and apparatus will make this station home on an around-the-clock basis.
The design and building of this facility that serves the northwestern section of the county was made possible by revenue generated by special purpose local option sales tax collections.
Gym fees OK’d
The county commission approved a request by the city of Fort Oglethorpe to spend $29,039 for architectural services. The municipal recreation department has retained Killian Clark Partnership Architects, of Ringgold, to prepare plans for the conversion of a carpet manufacturing and warehousing facility into a gymnasium.
This will be a SPLOST funded project.
Rezoning for development
The commission granted a request from Best Land Investments, LLC, to change from C-1 to C-R a parcel of land on Empire Drive at Direct Connection Drive. The change will make the property have the same zoning as an adjacent piece of land, thereby increasing the size of the C-R property.
A similar zoning request to move a section of undeveloped land from R-1 to C-1 was made by the owners of Lake Winnepesaukah. The rezoning is necessary if the amusement park goes forward with plans to expand the park, according to owner Adrienne Rhodes.
Vincent Estill, pastor of Bible Way Baptist Church that neighbors the park, asked that the commission override the requirements of a 50-foot-wide vegetative buffer and instead require a 200-foot buffer along the church and amusement park property line.
Tennyson Dickinson, a member of the family that founded Lake Winnie in 1925, said the rezoning is needed if the park is to add more rides for the 2012 season.
The commissioners granted the request as originally proposed, including 50-foot-wide vegetative buffers, by a unanimous vote.