DEMOREST — Demorest leaders want to enhance communication between the city and Piedmont College.
"We want a strong relationship with Piedmont College, and I think Piedmont College wants a strong relationship with the citizens of Demorest," Mayor Rick Austin said. "We have to have open dialog. In any relationship that works effectively, communication is key. The city council is asking that we move forward in establishing a very open line of communication as we consider what we have to do to make sure that the city operates efficiently."
Piedmont, founded in 1897, is an independent, comprehensive, co-educational liberal arts college.
"It's no surprise that Piedmont College is very important to the city of Demorest, but Piedmont College is also the largest landowner in the city of Demorest and they pay no city taxes, and yet receive much city benefits," said Mayor Rick Austin.
That means the college pays no taxes on its campus, property and some 20 homes it owns in the city, city leaders said in discussing the matter Tuesday night.
At issue is the impact of the college, its construction traffic and its routine traffic on the city's infrastructure.
"One of the things we had to discuss tonight was allocating funds from the city toward repaving of surface streets," Austin said. "Each year we get what are called LMIG funds, and our allocation is about $22,000 that we receive from the Georgia Department of Transportation. We have to prioritize where we're going to resurface streets and in what order they're going to be resurfaced."
Because the college doesn't pay taxes on such a large amount of property in the city, Demorest leaders are left to make up the difference from the remaining property owners, with that source supplemented by water revenue.
Half of one street in question primarily serves the college and its facilities, city leaders said. That includes the new Student Commons, athletic fields and tennis courts, and five dormitories.
"Asphalt is extraordinarily expensive," Austin said. "We've chosen to concentrate on Georgia Street, a street that is in dire need. We get probably more requests from constituents to address the failings of that particular road, and I don't think it's any surprise to anyone that some of that failure is due to the amount of traffic of large construction vehicles and also large buses for travel for athletics."
One possible avenue to increase revenue for the city is to study adding some form of impact fees, or possibly performance bonds.
"We had a conversation tonight regarding the potential use of impact fees to recoup some of the impact to the citizens of the city of Demorest," Austin said.
Councilman Jerry Harkness said he wants to make sure the city proceeds carefully with potential impact fees, so it doesn't inhibit growth. Still, he said he would like to see new facilities and businesses offset their impact on infrastructure.
Council members discussed formally requesting to speak to college leaders in about a month. A formal request for that brief opportunity could be discussed at next Tuesday night's regular council meeting.
"There probably will be a resolution that will be discussed and potentially voted on to present to both the president and the board of trustees at Piedmont College, requesting a formal moment of their time during the annual board of trustees meeting in the spring," Austin said.
"I think it's good for the board of trustees to have a part of that conversation," Austin said. "They ultimately are the governing authority of Piedmont College. It would be good for the governing authority of the city and the governing authority of Piedmont College to get together and have that conversation and talk about how we can have a much stronger relationship that benefits not only the students and faculty and staff of Piedmont, but most importantly benefits the citizens of Demorest who are footing the bill at this point in time."
Austin repeatedly acknowledged the contributions of the college, saying he and city leaders simply want to find ways the city and the college can co-exist in a more mutually beneficial manner.
