Every business operating in the Town of Bethlehem next year will pay more for its business license.
The Bethlehem Town Council on Monday night approved a new fee structure that goes into effect January 2011.
Instead of the current flat rate of $20, each business will pay a base fee of $25 and an additional $5 per employee beyond the first three.
However, the town’s largest employer, Harrison Poultry, will not face the full impact of the increase. At last month’s meeting, company officials complained that with 700 or more employees, Harrison would have to pay as much as $4,500 for its business license.
To prevent that, Councilman Scott Morgan’s motion capped the business license fee at $1,000. Councilman Wayne Ridgeway said he would have preferred an incremental cap of $500 before taking it to $1,000, but he went along with Morgan’s motion, which passed unanimously.
The motion did not change the Feb. 15 due date or other existing provisions. The penalty for missing the due date, for example, will remain 50 percent of the cost of the license.
Mayor Sandy McNab said the town would notify businesses prior to January so that they could plan for the increased expense.
In other business, the council discussed at some length a chronic problem with sites around town that need to be cleaned up.
The mayor said he had tried, unsuccessfully, to track down the owners of some of the properties. So the council directed town attorney Ron Bennett to try to identify the owners through legal databases and to draw up demand letters.
One of the property owners who will receive a letter is Barrow County Board of Commissioners Chairman Danny Yearwood. The mayor said a property the county chairman owns off Carl-Bethlehem Road has needed attention for years.
Bennett said most property owners cooperate after receiving letters about code violations. Those who don’t, he said, face a possible misdemeanor charge of violating a municipal ordinance with punishment of up to $1,000 and six months in jail.
“The goal of code enforcement is not to get to that point,” Bennett said. “The vast majority of people encountered have been compliant.
“In the past five to six years, I’ve only had to drag two people to court, and they were some pretty egregious offenders.”
Offering to assist town officials with code enforcement and an array of other planning and zoning services Monday night was the former director of planning and development for Barrow County.
Guy Herring, who now works as director of planning for McFarland-Dyer & Associates of Suwanee, said his company could provide all of the town’s planning and zoning services, as well as building inspections and code enforcement.
The town has in place an intergovernmental agreement with the county government for planning and zoning services, but Herring’s former department in 2009 was downsized to a single planner.
A few weeks ago, a second planner who had been moved out of the department and assigned some tasks unrelated to planning was moved back to the department. The county commissioners last month also restored the position of development and utilities inspector, because inspections were falling behind.
However, Morgan said he is concerned that when development picks back up, the county might have difficulty meeting the town’s needs.
Herring said that if the town privatized its planning and zoning services, there would be no additional costs. In fact, under the current agreement, the county government gets all of the zoning fees for town projects; under an agreement with his firm, the town would keep a portion. His company would have to set up a new fee structure for code enforcement, he added.
The town attorney said the council would have to end its intergovernmental agreement with the county before entering into a new agreement with Herring’s company.
Ridgeway suggested that the council meet to discuss the possible agreement with Herring’s firm. The council set a meeting for 7 p.m. Monday, March 15.
Herring agreed to provide a draft agreement and draft scope of work as a starting point for that discussion.
In other business Monday night, the council voted to annex into the town and to rezone to Bethlehem R-1 about 7.9 acres owned by Doug and Mary Koestel at 877 Monroe Hwy.
