During the regular meeting of the City of Demorest Council, members voted to increase the tap fees in the City of Demorest. The previous rate of $800 was the lowest in the region and was not adequate to cover the cost of installing the tap, according to Council members and staff.

The Council was set to raise sewer rates to comply with a USDA requirement, however the Council has discovered that the rates for the UDSA study were based on flawed data. Some 250 water and sewer accounts were improperly coded by the previous administration. The accounts are commercial accounts that have been improperly coded as residential. If the accounts had been coded properly, the City would have received an additional $50,000 annually. “I am fed up with the incompetence of the previous adminstration, the city missed out on what it was due and we paid $17,ooo for a study based on flawed data,” remarked Mayor Rick Austin. The study he referred to was one done by Ben Turnipseed, engineer. Turnipseed completed a study for the council on the water and sewer fees, but with the incorrectly coded 250 accounts, the study data was flawed. The Council agreed to postpone the vote on raising the rates and directed City Manager, Steve Lindsey to contact Turnipseed to give the correct data and get a revised study.

Additionally, Councilman Jerry Harkness brought up another issue concerning the proposed water and sewer fees. Some customers right outside the city limits would see a marked increase in their water and sewer rates. Councilman Harkness explained, “some small buisness right out the city limits that doesn’t use much water or sewer would see their base rate rise to a minimum of $200 just because they are in a shopping center.” Joely Mixon, interim City Treasurer reminded the Council that the current budget was based upon the fees being raised in February and that the issue needed to be addressed.

The new tap rates take effect July 1, 2015 and are as follows:

                Water                   Sewer

Meter size        Inside     Outside        Inside     Outside

3/4 inch        $1300      $1600      $1300     $1600

1 inch         $2500     $2700       $3000     $3200

1 1/ 2inch    $3500     $3700      $4000     $4200

2 inch       $5000     $5200       $5500     $5700

3 inch     $10,000   $10,200     $10,500     $10,700

4 inch    $20,000    $20,200    $20,500    $20,700

6 inch    $40,000    $40,200    $20,500    $10,700

8 inch    $65,000    $65,200    $65,500    $65,700

Buying Methamphetamine in Habersham County should be a little more difficult after a raid on a house on Pelican Drive just south of Cleveland.

David Hawkins was taken into custody at the home Monday. White County Sheriff Neal Walden says Hawkins was selling approximately one kilogram of meth each week for the past two years. His buyers were allegedly scattered through Habersham, White, Lumpkin, Banks, Hall, Jackson and Dawson counties.

During the raid, investigators seized about 20 ounces of crystal meth and $200,000 in cash from Hawkins’ home. They also took several vehicles, including a 2014 Ford F-150 Tonka Edition, a 2014 Ford Taurus, a 2004 Harley-Davidson motorcycle and a 1981 Chevrolet Corvette.

Methamphetamine is an illegal drug in the same class as cocaine and other powerful street drugs. It has many nicknames—meth, crank, chalk or speed are the most common.

While the drug initially acts as a stimulant, it is a poison and prolonged use can lead to serious health conditions, including memory loss, aggression, psychotic behavior and potential heart and brain damage.

Walden says taking down Hawkins means “the methamphetamine drug trafficking business in North Georgia has been greatly reduced.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Appalachian Regional Drug Enforcement Office assisted in the investigation which spanned almost 2 years.

City of Cornelia taxpayers will pay 71% more per year in rent to hold on to their iconic train depot.

City Council members this week approved a new lease with Norfolk Southern Railway Company for the land underneath the depot. The annual rent jumps from $700 to $1200 per year. While that is a sizable increase, Cornelia City Manager Donald Anderson says the train folks originally wanted a whole lot more. “Norfolk Southern was proposing that the rent be increased from $700 a year to $4800 per year.”

Anderson was able to talk them down, “We reached a compromise,” he explains. The new lease replaces the original agreement signed in 1989.

The city would likely have paid the higher price if Norfolk Southern had pushed the issue because the building is the symbolic and historic heart of the town.  The depot, along with its Big Red Apple, is the most widely-know symbol of the town and Cornelia’s first city limits were set at half-mile increments in all directions from the depot making it the literal center of the original town.

Originally constructed in 1910 and rebuilt in 1914 after a fire, the depot currently houses a railway museum and is the site of numerous public gatherings and concerts.