The East Ellijay City Council approved a $2.4 million operating budget for the city’s 2022-23 fiscal year when meeting last week.
Mayor Mack West gave a rundown of budget details during a public hearing that preceded the June 21 council meeting.
East Ellijay will continue to waive all business and residential city property taxes, as it has since 1976, West noted. Fees for residential curbside pickup of bagged trash for inner city residents will also continue to be waived.
West said East Ellijay’s 2022 millage rate is 3 mils, and the city remains in excellent financial shape. He noted that Georgia law requires municipal governments set a millage rate for each tax year, and that rate has to be reported to the county, even with the tax waiver.
“I think it’s a great budget. It’s only $100-and-something-thousand more than it was last year,” said Don Callihan, councilmember.
As for the current fiscal year’s budget, West told councilmembers Linda Smith, Ed Forrester and Callihan that high fuel prices are having an impact.
“In our 12th month, I’m going to have to pay part of the gas out of some other fund. We’ve exceeded $25,000 in gas in the police department. We’ve never gone that high before, but $25,000 is pretty good for seven vehicles,” he said.
Recent resurfacing of Highland Parkway and Howard Simmons Road cost $266,000, which was $66,000 more than what was initially expected due, in part, to the rising price of asphalt. The last time East Ellijay bought asphalt, it was around $54 a ton, but it has since gone up to $126 a ton.
“To do the parkway, we had to use 1,572 tons, and to do Howard Simmons, we had to (use) 462 tons,” West said.
West said East Ellijay will be leaving its hotel-motel tax at 3 percent despite recent changes by Gilmer County and the City of Ellijay.
“(Ellijay) and the county are both moving to 8 percent, but we’re going to stay at 3 percent. We kind of considered going to 5 percent, but we decided to leave it at 3 percent,” he added.
In other news ...
﹣ West said East Ellijay had to give up $45,856 in interest on a $2 million investment in two insurance companies, Woodmen of the World and Cetera Investments, because the investments are prohibited by Georgia law, according to the state Department of Audits.
The issue was found as the city’s standard yearly audit was compiled by Welch, Walker and Associates.
“The state audit department contacts us and tells us what we did wrong. The number two auditor in the state of Georgia said we have to surrender them. We did a cash surrender value on it. We had to give back the $45,856 in interest, but we got back our $2 million. We didn’t lose anything on the principal,” West said.
﹣ A traffic roundabout planned to go on Highland Parkway at the entrance to Talona Ridge RV Resort is on hiatus for the time being due to water pipe encasement costs being more than what was initially planned, noted City Planner Mack Wood.
East Ellijay has agreed to contribute a maximum of $80,000 to the roundabout project, and the rest will be handled by the RV resort, Wood noted. That amount has been budgeted for the 2022-23 fiscal year, West said.
“They will try to do a roundabout at a later date as they develop the other side of the road,” Wood said.
﹣ West told councilmembers that East Ellijay will need to move its accounts to a new bank as the city’s current bank, South State, is closing its East Ellijay location in August.
“South State Bank is moving to Blue Ridge. We’ve had a long relationship with them and the initial bank. We’ve got to approve the moving of five checking accounts, four general funds CDs and one SPLOST CD,” he added.
﹣ Police Chief Larry Callahan said East Ellijay Police responded to 643 calls for service in April and May, not counting traffic stops.
There were 104 arrests made in April and 108 in May, Callahan noted.
﹣ An application to GDOT for a specific type of clearing to be done on property being considered for an Aldi’s grocery store has been approved, and GDOT is preparing to pull the permit, Wood noted.
No further information on the grocery store chain’s interest in the property off Highway 515 was given.