Barrow Journal

With the March 15 referendum on a proposed six-year extension of the county’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax only weeks away, the issue has yet to generate much political activity – either for or against.

That could change Monday, Feb. 21, when Barrow County commission chairman Danny Yearwood addresses the Barrow County Republican Party on the topic. Yearwood is the main speaker for the 7:30 p.m. meeting that will be held at the Winder Woman’s Club building at 15 W. Midland Ave.

While every local government in Barrow County is depending on the six-year extension for the funding of needed capital improvements or equipment, the county government has the most at stake in whether the measure passes or fails in four weeks.

That is because the previous administration in 2005 set into motion a decades-long repayment plan utilizing about $4 million a year in SPLOST proceeds to pay back the $58 million in bonds issued for the construction of major projects, including the Barrow County Criminal Justice Center, the new fire headquarters and Station 6, and the renovation of the old courthouse facilities in downtown Winder.

If the penny sales tax were not renewed, the more than $4 million in annual debt payments would have to come from the county government’s General Fund. [Full Story »] 

Auburn’s city government has hit a stumbling block, literally, in its construction of new baseball fields off Parks Mill Road. [Full Story »] 

Most Auburn residents and businesses apparently paid little attention to the months-long public process leading up to the city council’s approval of a new storm water utility fee last September.

But the first bills arriving in January got their attention.

A printing snafu by the city’s billing contractor listed the fee as a “Residential Utility Fee” with no other explanation – along with this ominous language in a box under the word LIEN: “Fees not paid by 2/28/2011 are subject to have a lien placed on the property.” [Full Story »]