CITY OF GRAY
Gray City Council members followed through with items they hashed out in their committee meeting at their December business meeting.
The Dec. 4 meeting was called or order by Mayor Ed Barbee, followed by the approval of the meeting agenda, minutes to the previous meeting and accounts payable.
The first item of Old Business was the second reading of an ordinance to impose an information technology fee to municipal court charges. The fee is in the amount of $21 per offense with the revenue used to provide technology support for the Gray Police Department and municipal court functions. The ordinance was approved unanimously.
The other item under Old Business was the first reading of the ordinance that would provide for brewery production and sales in the City of Gray. The second reading of the ordinance and a vote will take place at the January meeting.
New business
Council members approved a resolution to adopt the city’s Water and Sewer budget. The budget is in the amount of $2,633,800, which includes an estimated payment of $460,000 to Jones County for the purchase of water.
The city council approved a repayment to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a partial repayment of funds received from a Community Development Block Grant. The repayment was in the amount of $65,784.
Mayor Pro Tem James Collins asked City Attorney John Newberry if the money could be gotten back from the grant administrator who signed off on releasing the project funds for work that was not completed.
Newberry had suggested the repayment of the funds because, without doing so, the city would not be eligible for any future grants. The attorney said recouping the money would involve suing the grant administrator, and that was in process.
Council members voted to accept the bid of Jerry McMillan for the Autumn Ridge Trail Storm Drainage project at $86,260. Superintendent Cheyenne Morgan stated at the previous committee meeting that McMillan was the low bidder for the project.
The council granted authorization for Barbee to sign the 2024 LMIG application for the Georgia Department of Transportation.
The final resolution approved at the meeting was to set the customer rates for garbage collection services from Ryland Environmental. The cost of the first cart for inside the city customers will increase the first of the year from $10 to $13 with additional carts costing $12 each.
Outside the city, the cost will increase to $16 for the first cart and the same $12 for additional carts.
Public comments
Donnie Melton was the only one to speak at the conclusion of the meeting. Melton’s remarks were in opposition to the proposed brewery ordinance, but he pointed out that it was good to be able to stand in opposition and still like each other.
Melton said in 1981 Jones County had a population of 17,087 and the population had grown to 28,427 in 2022.
The speaker said the City of Gray’s population grew 65 percent from 2000 to 2022.
“Growth is not solely connected to alcohol sales. People came to Gray because it is family friendly and family focused,” he said.
Melton said it was his opinion that alcohol has a detrimental effect.
“If we go from family friendly to an adult-type community, it will have the opposite effect,” he said.
Melton told council members if they decide to go the way of the brewery, he believes the city would decline.
“I’m 100 percent for economic development, but alcohol is not the way,” he added.
Melton said he grew up with an alcoholic father and feels more alcohol in the city is the wrong direction.
The next meeting of the city council is the all-committees meeting Dec. 18.
