SPECIAL CALLED MEETING
JULY 31, 2007
10:00 A.M. – CITIZENS HALL

BUSINESS
Authorization to adopt the Resolution setting the millage rate.

COMMISSIONERS’ COMMENTS

The Douglas County Sentinel is reporting today that the Douglasville City Council is seeking to expand the Douglasville Downtown Conference Center by using two neighboring buildings and purchasing the Hair Barn. Also mentioned was the prospect of the city’s television station to be displayed on Comcast analog and digital cable.

The Douglas County Sentinel is reporting today that the Board of Commissioners is proposing a reduction in the millage rate from 8.240 to 7.861 mills, which will be heard at Citizen’s Hall during the BOC meeting.

The reason for the millage rate from the county was to collect approximately $30 million to pay for the following:

• $890,000 to pay a debt service on the Jail Annex, which will go on until 2013
• Pay for salaries (and increasing salaries)
• Employee benefits at a total of roughly $2 million dollars
• New positions in public safety and the courts at $1.3 million
• $1.2 million for forty-six new vehicles, most of which for public safety

Also the Board of Education is expected to decrease its millage rate from 20.3 to 19.7 mills. Citizens may remember the Board increasing the millage rate last year to 20.3 mills around the same time the county raised their millage rate.

The Douglas County Sentinel is reporting today that recently the Douglasville City Council unanimously passed a resolution to advertise the 2007 ad valorem tax digest and levy, a similar resolution Mayor Thomson vetoed a day prior.

CITY OF DOUGLASVILLE
CITY COUNCIL

Special Meeting

July 24, 2007
5:00 p.m.

AGENDA

1. Call to Order

2. Invocation

3. Pledge of Allegiance

4. Finance Committee/Henry Mitchell III
a. 24-07-17 - Notwithstanding the July 23, 2007, veto by the Mayor, approve the City Council’s action to authorize the City Finance Director to publish in the County legal organ, the Douglas County Sentinel, the State of Georgia-required advertisement for the tax digest and tax levy for the year 2007, including a proposed tax rate of 3.854 mills.

5. Other Business

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The topic about the YMCA moving into Hunter Memorial Park has been growing, stirring up debate that embraces the newcomer while others oppose the notion at a fundamental level. According to City of Douglasville Mayor Mickey Thompson, the YMCA or a similar facility was to be built using 2002 SPLOST funds.

Months before the vote for the 2002 SPLOST referendum, a published list of projects was made available to the public in which there was no indication of a YMCA or multi-use facility. However in 2006 an audit on the County’s uses of the 2002 SPLOST that a multi-use complex was originally budgeted, yet is no longer currently budgeted due to funds being shifted to construct the aquatic center at Boundary Waters Park.

Also in 2006 was another SPLOST referendum that proposed the construction of four community recreation centers at the cost of $7 million, yet the YMCA was never mentioned then either. Consequently the referendum was dismissed by voters.

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Last week I had a chance to visit the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, to learn more about the last days of 1st Lt. Robert G. Hunter – the airman was shot down over Laos by a SAM while flying an F-105D. While at JPAC I met with Deputy Commander Johnie E. Webb, Jr., explaining the material I had uncovered about Lt. Hunter over the past year.

Afterwards Commander Webb checked the JPAC database to find a Robert Hunter who was enlisted, however Hunter was actually an officer. Comparing service numbers of the database entry against the number I had revealed they were one and the same. Hunter’s file was then requested to be pulled.

During the thirty minute wait, discussion about the Veterans Memorial at Robert G. Hunter Memorial Park filled the office. It was in these talks that I realized another importance of the memorial that served a more global view – not only does the memorial represent local servicemen, but it represents every F-105 pilot who perished or was captured during the Vietnam War.

A female aid walked into the office stating that Lt. Hunter’s file was an “interesting case.” The reason for Hunter being filed as enlisted was because the file was part of a collection that was incomplete due to lost files. Since Lt. Hunter was sent to the USAF Mortuary at Clark Air Base, Philippines, files from Clark have inheritably been lost after the conclusion of the war.

Commander Webb believes the lost files may be on the island of Guam, but there is no definite answer where the files actually could be housed. Supposedly the files are to be transferred to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery.

The only file that JPAC had for Lt. Hunter was the Report of Casualty completed on July 19, 1966. Hunter’s parents in Douglasville were notified of their son’s death on July 18th, the same day the body was released for burial.

Forty-one years ago to this day, Lt. Hunter was buried at the Douglasville Cemetery with a missing man formation. Funeral services were conducted at the First Baptist Church of Douglasville by Rev. Milton Dwelle and Dr. A. Jason Shirah. Downtown merchants honored the lost of Hunter with flying almost 100 American flags.

The Douglas County Chamber of Commerce and the Douglas County Jaycees recommended that the City Park be named after the late Lieutenant. Today Lt. Hunter rests beside his mother, Zelma, and father, Robert Ray.

The Interactive Tour has been updated today with two additional features to the History section. First is a collective listing of most post offices that were present in Douglas County since the early 1820s, dating back to Campbell County times. Excluded from the list are the following due to no location data: Gould, Seth, Quaker, and Cliff.

Also an Events section has been added which will highlight historic events that have occurred in the county, including the B-26 fly-over in 1950.

There was a five car pile up on Highway 5 today at the corner of West Stewarts Mill. The left northbound lane was blocked at the the traffic light. Involved were two cars, one van, and two pickup trucks - the trucks received the most damage due to one truck slamming into the other at the tail end of the accident. There looked as though there were no serious injuries on scene.

A fire truck and ambulance was dispatched from Fire Station #5 Chapel Hill.

The Douglas County Board of Commissioners will hold a Special Called Meeting at 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, July 31st, in Citizen’s Hall of the Douglas County Courthouse to consider the setting of the ad valorem tax rate for 2007. The public is welcome to attend the meeting.