Barrow Journal

After getting nowhere with friendly requests to property owners about removing junk from their properties, Bethlehem Mayor Sandy McNab and the town council earlier this month asked the town attorney to turn up the heat.

On March 11, attorney Ron Bennett sent a “Notice of Violation” to 10 people with a stern warning to haul away their old cars, appliances and demolished buildings or face up to $1,000 in fines and 60 days in jail for every day past the 30-day removal deadline.

At Monday night’s called council meeting, Bennett went through a stack of files on the properties.

One of the files belonged to Danny Yearwood, the chairman of the Barrow County Board of Commissioners. He owns three properties in Bethlehem, two of them on West Star Street, the town’s second busiest road. [Full Story »] 

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. [Full Story »] 

Today is the last day for candidates to qualify to run in the Nov. 3 municipal elections around Barrow County.

The city of Statham has had an absolute crush of candidates. The eighth one, Betty Kinney, walked through the door of city hall this morning while city clerk Susan Gabriel was talking on the phone with a reporter. The other qualifiers include incumbents Betty Lyle and Gayle Steed and challengers Jeremiah Bennett, Johnnie Ellington, David Huth, Susan Martin and Terry Tripp.

Fourteen miles to the west, however, the town of Carl didn’t have a single council candidate qualify by the end of its qualifying period at 5 p.m. Thursday. Mayor David Brock, who did qualify to run again for his post, hung around town hall for a half hour after the building closed, but no one showed up.


[Full Story »]