The City of Demorest’s special called meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 8 renewed the Habersham Medical Center security contract with the Demorest Police Department– something that had been awaiting action since late October– in a unanimous vote. The new city budget also passed unanimously. The other agenda items, like the reallocation of SPLOST funds to fix the retaining wall on Central Avenue and Demorest’s COVID-19 policy have both been tabled.
Mayor Rick Austin called the new budget “a conservative budget,” noting that the city has continued to build up reserve funds, pay off debt, lower the millage rate, and will be able to offer a 4 percent raise to city employees. “Government is not in the business of making money, the government is in the business of providing services to the citizens that we serve,” Austin said.
Councilman John Hendrix suggested the reallocation of $750,000 of SPLOST funds to repair the retaining wall on Central Avenue at the Dec. 1 meeting. The council tabled their decision to reallocate these funds at yesterday’s special called meeting, as they are awaiting news from the Department of Transportation regarding how much the DOT will contribute financially to fix the wall. Councilman Nathan Davis said he didn’t “want to be hasty,” with the decision on SPLOST funds, saying “we need to hold off and see how these numbers are going to come in.”
The council discussed the purchase of a new firetruck, which was part of the 2021 SPLOST that passed overwhelmingly in Demorest. “I don’t understand why we need all this equipment,” Davis said. Fire Cheif Ken Ranalli explained that the current truck they have, which they acquired in 1996, does not have the equipment to respond to vehicle fires, brush fires, hazardous material fires, and EMS calls. The current cost of the truck is $70,000 over the SPLOST budget for the firetruck, Ranalli made an offer to the council to have his pay lowered in order to afford the new truck.
“You just saw a man that wants to serve more than put money in his pocket, number one. Number two, over 75 percent of people voted ‘yes’ for SPLOST, and this council said that we were going to buy a new fire truck. That’s what we told the people and 75 percent of the people did that,” Austin said. “When our word is ‘this is what we’re going to put forward in our SPLOST project,’ and then we go out and we’re telling people that this is a public safety SPLOST, […] I think that’s what the people said they want.”
No decisions were reached on the fire department’s request for a new truck at the meeting. The council and the fire chief will discuss their next moves further and make a decision on the firetruck in the future.
You can watch the full livestreamed meeting here. The Demorest City Council will meet again on Dec. 29 for their monthly work session at 6:00 pm.
