Barrow Journal

Statham reviewed its vehicle use policy at its meeting last Tuesday.

It was decided that allowing vehicles to be driven to and from work will be left up to the mayor and council’s discretion. Examples when it would be appropriate are as follows:

•managerial employees Whose personal use of a city-owned vehicle is consistent with the requirements of the position.

•employees Who are subject to hour call out or have job responsibilities requiring highly irregular work hours.

•duty vehicles designed or equipped for high priority response where response time will be enhanced by allowing the vehicle to remain in custody of individual employee. Employees assigned to duty vehicles which are taken home must be available to respond upon request on a 24-hour basis any time the employee has custody of the vehicle.
[Full Story »] 

The past year in Statham, there have been four armed robberies, two of which occurred last month at gas stations.

Police chief Steve Martin approached the city with the idea of offering a reward for citizens with information to come forward. He said that the police department had received some tips, but nothing substantial enough to make an arrest. He thinks citizens need more incentive.

“Any money that (the city) might be able to offer would hopefully move things along,” Martin said.

He added that an issue with offering an award is that there could be more than one suspect, and the reward may have to be paid twice. [Full Story »] 

The Statham City Council approved its Fiscal Year 2010-2011 budget with plans to amend it at the city’s next meeting.

The previous budget had included plans for a five percent increase for two police officers. The council decided to approve the budget without the salary increase and will revisit the issue at its July meeting.

Council member Betty Lyle was uneasy with singling out two employees for raises when the city employs 13 others, including maintenance workers.

“There’s no secrets around here,” Lyle said. “And you’re going to cause friction with the other employees if two get the raise and the others don’t.”

According to the council, there hasn’t been a salary increase in at least two years, if not three. [Full Story »] 

The City of Statham will host its annual Sunflower Festival on Saturday, September 18, 2010 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. [Full Story »] 

Statham expects to break even with its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2010-2011.

In all, the city is expecting $2,161,728 in revenue and the same amount in expenses. A public hearing was held at the council meeting Tuesday night where no citizen spoke in favor or opposition of the proposed budget, and the council had no discussion.

The city’s largest expense, the police department is looking at a few cuts along with some proposed increases. [Full Story »] 

The Statham City Council agreed to amend the take-home policy of police vehicles for the chief of police in order to more effectively serve the city.

[Full Story »]