Gray’s meeting of all committees took place at an earlier date and time in order to receive the audit report for 2021.
Mayor Pro Tem James Collins called the July 13 meeting to order in the absence of Mayor Ed Barbee. The first report was from Finance Chairman and Councilman Terrell Fulford. He said 98.8 percent of the 2021 property taxes had been collected with $12,356 remaining.
City Clerk Cindy Yancey said the 2023 budget process had started, and it would be presented to the council in August.
Main Street Gray Director Ashely Roberson brought up a question about the division of the city’s Hotel/Motel Tax. The funds are placed in an account that had been used by the Jones County/Gray Chamber of Commerce when that board and the Main Street Gray board had been combined.
Now that the boards are separate, Roberson asked that the funds, which are for the purpose of promoting tourism, be split with Main Street receiving 60 percent.
“I’d like to be able to use them for banners and other tourism promotions for the city,” she said.
The director asked for that to be spelled out when the contract is renewed. Yancey said the past agreement gave an estimate of the tax collections, and it was suggested that the percentage would be the better option.
Councilmen agreed by consensus to support the requested 60 percent split for the tax funds.
In her Main Street report, Roberson said downtown businesses had expressed interest in having an event like first Friday. She said Music Medics has offered to provide the music. Roberson said the event would be walkable for people to enjoy downtown, and it would be an opportunity to showcase local businesses. The director said they are looking at possibly starting it in August and having it on the last Friday of the month.
Roberson said she is meeting with Keep Jones Beautiful Executive Director Vicki Bilderback to coordinate Christmas lights and decorations for the Nov. 26 downtown Christmas celebration.
Collins gave a shout out for the TikTok videos Roberson has been doing to promote downtown businesses.
The mayor pro tem brought up the minimum square footage requirement for the City of Gray. The city currently has no minimum, and the tiny house movement has brought up that issue. Council members passed a 90-day tiny house moratorium in May until that issue is addressed. Collins said the minimum in Jones County is 600 square feet, and his suggestion was to make the minimum square footage 750 feet in the city.
The consensus of the council was for City Attorney John Newberry to create an ordinance with a minimum square footage of 750 feet. Part of that discussion was also the amount of square feet per floor for the homes.
Audit report
David McCoy with McNair, McLemore, Middlebrooks & Co. presented Gray’s audit report for 2021. He started by saying the city received an unmodified opinion with no current findings.
“That’s what you want,” McCoy added.
The financial statements showed the city with a total of $3,974,284 in assets and a fund balance of $3,849,634. McCoy said the majority of the city’s revenue comes from property taxes.
The auditor did point out that the water and sewer enterprise fund had a loss of $237,860 for the year.
“That is something to watch, but it’s not alarming,” he said.
McCoy thanked Yancey for her assistance during the audit process. The audit process was started later than usual due to a change in companies.
“Thanks to Cindy for proving information quickly, we were able to get the report completed and submitted on time,” he said.
The city’s next scheduled meeting is 6 p.m. Aug. 1, in the D.V.Childs Jr. Civic Center.
