At a called meeting Oct. 27, the Winder City Council agreed in a 3-2 vote to provide $10,000 to the fundraising campaign of the Barrow Economic Development Council.
Council members Ridley Parrish, Bob Dixon and Sonny Morris voted in favor while Frank Dunagan and David Maynard voted no. Charlie Eberhart was absent.
Asked by councilman Ridley Parrish if the requested funding for the “Best of Barrow” campaign is available in the city’s current budget, Mayor Chip Thompson said that while there is no specific earmark for it, the money is available.
Linda Moore, the EDC’s vice-president and only paid employee, told the council that economic development efforts in her threeyear tenure have retained or created more than 600 jobs in Barrow County.
She noted that Schutz Container Systems is preparing the site for the first phase of its new site in the town of Carl. The first phase of that project will be a 250,000-square-foot building that will house 100 or more jobs, she said.
The mayor expressed support of funding not only for this year, but also for the next four years.
However, councilman David Maynard said that while he appreciates Moore’s economic development efforts, he could not support spending $10,000 on the campaign in the current economic climate.
After the meeting, campaign director Bob Saacke told the Barrow Journal that the campaign has received pledges of $768,400 from 19 investors.
That includes “seed money” totaling at least $125,000 from the county’s building and industrial authorities.
In other business last week, the council tabled a proposal to refinance about $16 million in debt in order to help the city’s cash flow for the next few years. The matter was put on hold after several councilmen, while favoring the concept, asked for more information to be provided concerning the options.
This time, however, the quest for understanding apparently backfired. Winder finance director Leslie Henderson told the newspaper on Tuesday that the interest rates rose Nov. 1 and wiped out any potential savings from the proposal.
“The item will be on the (Nov. 9) agenda, but will not be something we will recommend the council take action on,” she said.
