According to Pickens County’s Director of Planning and Development Joey Low, building permit revenue for 2009 is down 42 percent year-to-date.
“It’s no secret to anyone in the room the state of the economy is not good,” Low told Sole Commissioner Rob Jones and others present at the August commissioner’s meeting. “Unfortunately that’s reflecting on the planning and development office in a negative way.”
Low reported that the planning department has collected $133,050 from January through July of this year. The department collected $227,658 during the same time period in 2008.
Home building permits, Low also reported, have ground to a near halt. On average, the planning department has issued approximately three permits per month in 2009.
In 2008 the monthly average for home building permits was eight. In 2006 the planning department permitted over 30 homes per month.
Miscellaneous permits, which include ancillary structures such as home additions and pole barns, now make up the largest portion of new monthly permits by the county office. For 2009 there has been, to date, an average of 18 miscellaneous structures permitted each month.
“Across the board, building permits is way down from what we have been experiencing,” Low said.
County increases Tax Anticipation Note by $1.5 million
Commissioner Jones increased the amount of the county’s Tax Anticipation Note (TAN) by 60 percent as a result of lower than expected sales-tax collections.
The TAN was increased from $2.5 million to $4 million.
A tax-anticipation note is a short-term loan that the county can, if it deems necessary, utilize to fund capital projects. The loan would be short-term and must be repaid quickly – typically in one year’s time. The county would use tax revenues to repay the TAN.
Jones said the county’s application for a TAN is nothing out of the ordinary. “At the first of the year, we automatically put in a $2.5 million tax anticipation notice. It doesn’t mean we’re going to need it, but we go ahead and put that in place,” he said.
“We see the need possibly before the end of the year, so we went ahead and increased it to $4 million. We haven’t used the $2.5 million by no means…We don’t know what’s going to happen by the end of the year with the way sales tax collections have been coming in,” Jones said. “We don’t want to wait until the 11th hour to try to work the paperwork and get it through there.“
Wireless 911 calls to cost 50 cents more with new mapping system
The 911-Center is in the process of installing a mapping system that will show 911 call center employees the physical location of emergency callers on a map.
Wireless callers can expect to pay an additional 50 cents in the near future per 911 call to offset charges imposed by telephone companies who will be testing the service before it is fully online at the local center.
The cost of the service itself, called Geo-911, was paid for by SPLOST.
Individuals will eventually pay $1.50 for each 911 call made from a wireless telephone. Individuals calling 911 from a landline currently pay $1.50.
“Right now when 911 gets a call from a cell phone, it just directs to the tower [as the call location]. It does not direct to the cell phone,” Commissioner Jones said at the monthly commissioner’s meeting.
“The system is only about 75 percent accurate right now,” said 911 Director Lee Sanders in a telephone interview. “I would say we will have the system implemented in the next two months.”
Other news from the commissioner’s meeting:
•Bids to construct and install a 500,000-gallon elevated tank in Tate and 1,700 feet of waterlines for the west end of the county are now being reviewed by G. Ben Turnipseed Engineers. The jobs were put out by the county for bid in anticipation of receiving funds from the American Stimulus and Recovery Act. The county, however, has yet to be approved for this federal funding.
Jones said if Pickens is not approved for stimulus money, the county will need to find an alternative method of funding the elevated tank at Tate. Tate now has an outdated 100,000-gallon tank that was built in the 1970’s, according to Pickens County Utilities Director Larry Coleman.
•Kathy Bruce was reappointed to the Pickens County Board of Family and Children Services.
•Melanie Dallas was appointed to the Region One Mental Health, Development Disabilities and Addictive Diseases Planning Board |
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