Thursday March 28th, 2024 10:40AM

Gainesville Council deals with Irma, school millage rate and rezoning

GAINESVILLE – Conversation was more animated and robust than usual before the start of Thursday’s Gainesville City Council work session.  The reason was simple; everyone (city department heads, staff personnel, elected officials and media members) had a story to tell about their experience with Tropical Storm Irma.

“It’s been a long three or four days; it has (been) for all of us,” Mayor Danny Dunagan said to start the work session.

Assistant City Manager Angela Sheppard reminded everyone that residential debris pickup policies were being relaxed for a thirty-day period to help city home owners clear their yards of organic debris.

She told council members they would have an official resolution regarding the temporary change in debris policy, and the mechanism for funding the additional services, for their consideration at Tuesday’s voting session.

“We are going to be asking for approval for some of the additional funding to come from the FY18 General Fund Contingency,” Sheppard said.  “We, of course, don’t know exactly what that amount will be at this time.”

City Manager Bryan Lackey said much of the clean-up cost would be recoverable.  “We should be reimbursed for the vast majority of it…we’re tracking it and taking pictures…that’s per the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) declaration we got yesterday.  We expect to be reimbursed at some point in time.”

Lackey said once residential debris had been cleared the city would consider partnering with commercial property owners to assist them in clearing debris from their businesses.  A decision on that aspect of the recovery process will be made soon, Lackey said.

Public Works Director Chris Rotalsky said his department received calls for over 150 tree-related incidents where roadways were blocked.  “Of those we still only have 49 that are still in the roadway…and they’re associated with power lines.  That number is dropping, literally, as we speak.”

Rotalsky added that little to no damage was reported at Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport.  “Amazingly we did not have any significant issues.  We didn’t have any of the planes on the tie-downs flip.  And as far as I know we didn’t have any building or hangar damage.”

Also to be considered at Tuesday’s voting session is final approval of the Gainesville City schools system’s millage rate and a pair of rezoning issues.

Gainesville Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Perry said, “They’ve (Board of Education) done all their public hearings and meetings and have decided to stay at the 6.85 (mils).”

Perry said the ordinance establishing the FY 2018 millage rate would require two public hearings before it becomes official and tax bills can be mailed.  “This ordinance read will be on Tuesday, the 19th, as normal, and then our second ordinance read will actually be on the 28th at a special called meeting before our work session.”

“That’s the only way we could get it in before the October second deadline,” Perry added.

The two rezoning requests to have their first public hearings on Tuesday pertain to applications to construct a Lidl grocery store along Dawsonville Highway on the site of a former nursing home near Beechwood Boulevard, and for a proposed 65-unit residential townhome development by JH Homes along South Enota Drive.

“I do believe that you’ll have some folks at the meeting that will come out and express some concerns,” Gainesville Planning Manager Matt Tate told council members about the townhome development application, “but I understand they have met with the applicant, there has been a neighborhood meeting.”

Tuesday’s voting session begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Gainesville Public Safety Complex on Queen City Parkway.

© Copyright 2024 AccessWDUN.com
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.