In Losing Georgia’s final series on public goods, understanding the needs of a community can be fundamentally more important than what a local government perceives is necessary. This is not always the case as government is needed to decide issues regarding public safety. Douglas County saw it fit to purchase six more pumper trucks, two ladder trucks, six ambulances and equipment for EMS personnel from the 2002 SPLOST referendum.

Yesterday the Douglas Neighbor printed a story about the first of two impact fee hearings for Dougalsville to be on December 11^th, while the Douglas County Sentinel printed a similar story back on November 19^th. The purpose of these hearings is to gather information from city residents about the needs of the community. Similar hearings will also be provided by the County as it is State law. Yet the City of Douglasville is holding a City Council meeting tonight in regards to canceling the mandatory hearing.

Community interaction with local government is one that can provide proactive measures to help sustain rapid growth. However Douglas County has not done so well in the past six years. There seems to be a lack or breakdown in communication that leaves many residents asking questions in the presence of political rhetoric.

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The latest controversy surrounding public goods is the City of Douglasville wanting to annex more unincorporated land from Douglas County. This will in effect expand the city limits of Douglasville, but what services should residents expect when annexed into the city?

Defining that answer has been a two sided issue that has yet to be resolved. Each government has their own view of what the answer should be. In the midst of politics, the end result will be inflicted on the residents who have to face the burden.

In the case of providing public goods, there is a difference of which government offers services, and the results may or may not be surprising.

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The need for more public goods will always be a result of populous growth. As more people decide to dwell in Douglas County, additional stress is put upon infrastructures like public safety, public parks, schools and water/sewer services. To be able to construct or upgrade infrastructures, counties and municipalities have to provide solutions to fund public goods.

For Douglas County residents, the debate over funding public goods has been ongoing since 2000. The inception of Arbor Place Mall would serve as a catalyst for rapid commercial and residential growth, increasing traffic, shrinking the water supply, overpopulating schools and stress public safety. To combat all those problems, both the County and City of Douglasville devised a plan to raise the sales tax by one percent, known as SPLOST.

However, as 2007 inches closer by the day, reliance on SPLOST will cease. This issue has forced both local governments to find a quick solution to fund public goods that are desperately needed. Losing Georgia takes a look at the three options Douglas County has focused on: property/sales taxes, SPLOST, impact fees.

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This week Losing Georgia will have a few posts regarding capital investments, aka public goods. The year of 2006 has been one of concentration on the future of public goods for residents. The main issue has been adequately finding a way to pay for infrastructure improvements without being self destructive.

After residents voted against the continuance of another five year SPLOST, the pressure for impact fees became greater cast in a cloud of doubts. However, to understand the predicament of public goods in Douglas County, the argument begins at the definition of the problem.

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After five years of service discussing political issues about Douglas County, Editor Raymond Page is shutting down DouglasPolitics.com. Residents could write to the website and have thoughts published about actions conducted by the local government, while remaining anonymous. The articles in the backlog are very insightful, but may not remain available in the coming days.

Our friend Elizabeth will be carrying on Mr. Page’s legacy by publishing letters on her blog for the time being. Losing Georgia already allows residents to instantly give feedback on issues by permitting comments on daily news posts. A new forum is also in development that will allow residents to talk about issues with anonymity, if residents choose so.

The Losing Georgia Project limits bias on the basis of facts and research.

Today Losing Georgia had a chance to sit down with District 3 Commissioner Mike Mulcare to discuss issues concerning the growth of the district and Douglas County. Commissioner Mulcare recently won in the November Midterm election by 61% of the votes.

Before becoming a commissioner, Mike Mulcare was known by many residents as the co-founder of the Friends of Douglas County (FoDC). The grassroots organization pushed for protection and perseveration of natural resources, while creating dialogue for smarter growth that proved to be effective.

However, FoDC has fallen off the grid in recent years, making residents asking the question: “What ever happened to Friends of Douglas County?” Losing Georgia asked that question and many others during a candid conversation with the Commissioner at the Douglas County Courthouse.

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Last Saturday the Losing Georgia: Interactive Tour 2.1 was released with much needed improvements and features that have been the work of a few tireless nights. The biggest improvement was the implementation of using the Network Link feature in Google Earth.

Users are now able to download one small KMZ file (367 bytes), activate the link and view the Tour off the Losing Georgia server. Whenever there is an update, the user just has to refresh the Network Link to download the latest information. This eliminates the downloading of a new file every time there is an update.

The Community Places Tour was integrated into the Interactive Tour to make access to information easier without downloading separate files. The Network Link feature made this addition possible. Now there are four main folders in which the Interactive Tour is broken down: Development, History, Community, and Government.

A much needed feature since the release of overlays was limiting the view of one overlay at a time. This problem has been solved by having the contents of overlay subfolders to be options, rather than acting like placemarks. Now only one overlay can be viewed at a time in a subfolder. Also a “Turn Off Map” option has been included in each subfolder to turn off an active overlay.

With overlays in mind, thirteen historical maps of Georgia, from 1831 to 1897, have been added from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection using a Creative Commons License. Each map is a snippet which includes Douglas, Paulding, Haralson, Carroll Counties and more. The Losing Georgia Project does not profit from the use of the historical maps. The maps are intended for research and historical purposes.

The use of Georgia’s historical maps has led to defining twenty three communities throughout Douglas County. Many are communities that no longer exist, but users are able to discover these “lost” communities that once served many families in the past.

The Losing Georgia: Interactive Tour has been updated with 12 new developments, 1 overlay and 2 historical places. The Community Places tour has been integrated into the Interactive Tour to eliminate any duplications, while being removed from the website. Also file size has decreased considerably with the use of the Network Link feature in Google Earth. Users are now able to download the Interactive Tour file once and only have to refresh the file when updated. You can download the KMZ file or head over to the overview page if you are unfamiliar with the Interactive Tour.

Below is a list of additions and updates to the tour.

Developments

• Arrowhead Hills
• Copper Ridge
• Covered Bridge Estates
• Farmin Acres
• Hickory Stone
• Mandevilla Acres
• Northwoods at Mirror Lake
• Southwoods at Mirror Lake
• Strickland Acres
• The Shoals at River Pointe
• Trotters Run
• Watermist at Mirror Lake

Overlays

• Mirror Lake Site Plan

Historical Places

• Rosenwald School
• Stagecoach Inn

Besides focusing on the growth of Douglas County and asserting questions about development practices, Losing Georgia is also gathering history of the surrounding areas before it becomes lost. The education and appreciation of historical dialogue can reiterate the purpose of community, especially those communities that still resonate to this day.

Today’s post will concentrate on the brief history of Winston, a community approximately five miles west of Douglasville on Highway 78. Although the town is urbanized, it once was a thriving trading post with rail transportation to Atlanta. The article is a snippet of what is to come in the Losing Georgia Wiki, which is still underdevelopment.

For those residents who do live in the Winston community, take the time to learn of its past. If someone has historical information regarding the town, please leave a comment or send an e-mail.

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From the beginning, the Losing Georgia Project has been documenting development using various techniques, from geo-location in Google Earth to photographic galleries, to represent the affects of growth in Douglas County. It was not until August that a year’s worth of documentation was beginning to manifest for a greater purpose.

The Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (UCR) had conducted a random inspection at Brookmont and places around the Anneewakee Creek watershed, discovering complications. Afterwards, Losing Georgia began submitting photographs of problematic developments and potential environmental hazards from all parts of the county.

Each month Losing Georgia tries to submit a photo packet of problems in Douglas County for UCR. The photographs not only display sedimentation problems, but help decipher if errors were reported and properly documented. The submission also aids the two-year research of the Get the Dirt Out project – an investigation and study of Georgia’s measures and controls to reduce stormwater runoff from construction sites and the resulting improvement to water quality.

Douglas County’s watershed leader is Alice Champagne from the UCR, who had this to say about Losing Georgia’s recent work.

“The Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper appreciates Losing Georgia’s passion and commitment to this issue. Citizens do need to take action when they see problems, since groups such as Losing Georgia cannot be everywhere at all times.”

Residents who do notice problems need to call the WSA at (770) 949-7617. Have available the location, the problem that is occurring, the impact of the problem and any other information that may be pertinent.

Losing Georgia is proud to support the efforts of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and the Get the Dirt Out project.