CORNELIA — The Cornelia City Commission voted unanimously Monday afternoon to pay Habersham County to provide animal control services for the city.
The commission had discussed the matter at length during its regular monthly work session on Aug. 2.
Since that time, City Planner/Marshal Jeff Barron left his position with the city after almost 19 years. He worked for the city in a number of capacities from Sept. 15, 1997, until Aug. 8.
Asked about Barron's departure, Anderson said, "I can tell you is that he's not here," Anderson said. "He did resign and we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors."
Anderson also explained that the city is restructuring the former planning, zoning and code enforcement department that Barron headed.
"With the recent changes in our planning and code enforcement department, we will be hiring a new zoning administrator to oversee the building and zoning department, and obviously animal control we've agreed to contract that out to the county," Anderson said.
"Our code enforcement, we have transferred that function under the police chief and it's under the police department, which will make things hopefully a little more uniform," Anderson said. "It is a starting process for everybody because both of our code enforcement officers are relatively new, so it's kind of a learning experience, which I think will be a positive thing in the long run."
During Monday afternoon's meeting, Anderson updated commissioners on the changes in progress in the city, including streamlining building permits.
"The advertisement went out today for a new zoning administrator," Anderson told the commission. "We've already started changing our permitting process to a more streamlined, one-page permit instead of 10."
Anderson told commissioners the response in the days since the change has been positive.
"It's a clean slate," Anderson said. "We're restructuring everything."
"Personally, I think that will be good," said Mayor J.C. Irby.
