Winder loan moving forward

The council discovered what was going on only after someone placed in councilman Sonny Morris’ city hall mailbox a copy of a December 2009 notice of a public hearing about the loan and project.

Morris found the notice June 7 and brought it to the council’s work session that night.

That sparked considerable discussion at last week’s regular business meeting and precipitated the called meeting this week.


UNDER THE RADAR
Information released over the past several days shows that the city administration has been operating under the council’s radar on this project for 16 months.

Documents indicate the project was first discussed in 2004 but had been off the table until early 2009, when a large pool of federal stimulus funds became available to state and local governments.

Within weeks of the February 2009 passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, city representatives approached the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program about funding.

Then on March 13, 2009, late city administrator Bob Beck authorized consultants Keck & Wood Inc. to prepare a “pre-application” package for a loan. The company was paid $15,000, according to its president, Edgar G. Williams.

On Aug. 16, 2009, the site plan for the proposed complex was finalized.

Six weeks later, on Oct. 1, 2009, Beck signed and submitted the pre-application loan document to the USDA.

For more on this story, see the June 16 edition of the Barrow Journal or click here to sign up for a free trial of our new e-edition. Offer ends July 13.