Board of Ed Regular Meeting and Special Call
Board of Education, Education September 12, 2022
LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga.- The Lumpkin County Board of Education is holding their regular meeting on Sept. 12 at 6:00 p.m, they will also be holding a special calling meeting on Sept. 14 beginning at 6:15 p.m.
The regular meeting and the special call are open to the public. This is the agenda for the regular meeting. The special call meeting is another millage meeting to allow citizens to comment on the 11.47 millage rate. They will vote on the rate after the meeting.
Call to Order and Welcome Bobby Self
a. Invocation
b. Pledge of Allegiance
II. Adoption of Agenda Bobby Self
III. Board Minutes Dr. Brown
a. Approval of August Board Minutes
IV. Strategic Goal Area: Student Success Jennifer Moss
a. DAR Art Contest State Winner
V. Strategic Goal Area: Parent & Community Engagement Dr. Brown
a. SRO Officers – Presented by The America Legion – Commander Bill Rittenhouse
b. Partner in Education
VI. Strategic Goal Area: Professional Excellence Dr. Brown
a. Ideal Indians
b. Employee Service Recognition
VII. Strategic Goal Area: Operational & Organizational Excellence Dr. Brown
a. Financial Reports Erick Hofstetter
b. ESPLOST Reports Erick Hofstetter
c. TAN Resolution
VIII. Board Approvals Dr. Brown
a. Overnight School Trip – LCHS Varsity Boys Basketball – Carolina Invitational – Charleston, SC.
b. Overnight School Trip – LCHS Varsity Basketball – Andrew Johnson Bank Ladies Classic – Greenville, TN
c. Overnight School Trip – FCCLA Leadership Meeting – Covington, GA.
d. Employee-sponsored, non-school trip – LCHS EF Tour Venice, Florence, and Rome – Spring 2024 – Tori Jones
e. Employee-sponsored, non-school trip – LCMS EF Tour France, Spring 2024 – Bryan Fagan
f. Employee-sponsored, non-school trip – LCMS Study Abroad Japan, Summer 2024 – Megan Gossett, Tori Jones
g. Bus Driver Compensation
h. TAN Resolution
i. Personnel
IX. Adjourn
Board of Commissioner Approve Budget and Millage Rate
Business, Community August 23, 2022
LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga.- The Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners voted to approve the budget and millage rate at a special call meeting on Aug. 23.
The Commissioners met with Finance Director Abby Branan and County Manager Alan Ours on July 16 to review the budget and make changes where they could. To view that meeting visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/07/16/budget-meeting-for-fy23-budget/.
The budget and millage were also placed on the county website for citizens to review. That information can be found at https://www.lumpkincounty.gov/635/2023-Budget.
The millage rate breakdown.
The county has held the three required meetings to give the community time to comment on the proposed budget or millage rate. The millage rate that was approved was incorporated areas 11.280, unincorporated areas 09.389, school district 14.710, reservoir area 00.206, and the planning district 00.452.
This will be a tax increase of 17.95% since the county could not take the full rollback rate of 9.563. The net digest from this millage rate is $249,178,984.
The budget breakdown.
The budget that was adopted is balanced. The expected revenues and expenditures will be $26,477,334. This is a $2,134,769 increase over last fiscal year’s budget.
To review the full breakdown of both the millage rate and the budget please visit http://lumpkincountyga.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1661&Inline=True.
First Distilled Liquor License Approved by City
Business, Community, Lifestyle August 16, 2022
DAHLONEGA, Ga.- The City Council approved the first city license for the sale of distilled liquor after the lottery drawing that took place last week.
The council also approved the fiscal year 2023 budget presented by Finance Director Allison Martin. Martin also reviewed the tax digest and millage rate that the council approved. With a 5 to 1 vote the council also approved going forward with the housing assessment.
Sonika Ahluwalia while receiving congratulations from the council.
Gold Rush Spirits LLC run by Sonika Ahluwalia is the first city-issued license for the sale of distilled spirits and liquor in the City of Dahlonega. Ahluwalia still needs the state license to officially operate the business.
Her location for the liquor store will be at 19 Choice Avenue. She plans to open sometime in November before the Christmas crowds begin to gather.
“I wanna say congratulations and looking forward to having you as a business in our community, wishing you the best of luck,” congratulated Councilmember Ron Larson.
The council also approved the fy23 budget. Martin and her staff have been working on this for months to try and balance the budget with the current inflation conditions. She did balance it with both the revenues and expenditures totaling $5,083,868.
The beginning fund balance for fy23 is $2,938,757. In order to balance a portion of the fund balance may need to be used. The city has also received its most recent APRA fund allocation for projects. To look at the full breakdown of the budget please visit https://dahlonega.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Budget-Documents-1.pdf.
Finance Director Allison Martin while presenting the budget and millage rate to the council.
The millage rate that the city approved is 4.558 mills. The net tax levy at that millage rate is $1,135,758. This is a 0.82% decrease over the previous year’s millage rate of 5.508 mills.
This rollback will have a minimal effect on the taxpayers. Martin felt that with the uncertain times and the possibility of a recession rolling back any more than the 100% they currently are would not be possible at this time.
Heard in the clip above is councilmember Johnny Ariemma congratulating staff on their work on the budget. Also heard is Martin explaining the hard work her team puts into the budget.
At the July 18 work session, Mayor JoAnne Taylor brought the council a proposed housing study. To view the full discussion visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/07/19/city-discuss-housing-study/.
The council approved 5 to 1 to move forward with the full study. Councilmember Ross Shirley voted against moving forward because he felt the study was too broad and needed to be focused on one or two key steps. Once complete the council will then take further action based on the results of the study.
Commissioners approve FY2022 budget
Business, Community August 25, 2021
Lumpkin, Ga.- At the special call meeting on August 24, the County Commissioners approved the budget for the fiscal year 2022. They also agreed upon the millage rate and the Yahoola Creek Lighting project.
The commissioners unanimously accepted the fiscal year budget that Finance Director Abby Branan prepared. The budget was first presented to the commissioners on July 1.
The second page of the budget.
The budget was made available to the public online on July 28. There was a public hearing held on August 10 so the taxpayers of Lumpkin County could express any concerns they had with the budget proposal.
The 2021 budget was a total of 22,811,720 when it was adopted on September 15, 2020. The new budget total for 2022 is 24,486,037 when it was proposed for adoption on August 3. Giving a 1,674,317 increase between this year’s budget and next.
For more information on the proposal that was approved visit https://www.lumpkincounty.gov/Search?searchPhrase=2022%20budget&pageNumber=1&perPage=10&departmentId=-1
2021 Millage Rate
Additionally, the 2021 millage rate was set for the entire county. This included the incorporated city of Dahlonega, and unincorporated Lumpkin County, Lumpkin County School District, The Lumpkin County Reservior Tax District, and the Lumpkin County Planning Tax District.
The Lumpkin County School Board met on Monday, August 23 to approve their portion of the millage. They later submitted it to the county commissioners. The rate they voted for was a rollback rate and it was 15.560.
The millage rate the school board voted to accept.
The millage rate for Dahlonega is 11.556. Lumpkin County has a millage rate of 09.389. The Lumpkin County Reservior Tax District has a millage rate of 00.244. Lastly, the Lumpkin County Planning Tax District has a millage rate of 00.406.
Lumpkin County Tax Digest and Five Year History of Levy is available on the county website: https://www.lumpkincounty.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=159
The millage rate will now be sent to the Georgia Department of Revenue for final approval.
Yahoola Creek Lighting Project
The last thing commissioners approved was the Yahoola Creek Lighting project for Yahoola Creek Park. The board was originally going to vote on this at the meeting on August 17. The vote was delayed to give staff time to look into another option for paying for the project.
The commissioners voted to accept the first proposal that was offered by Georgia Power. This proposal is for a one-time upfront cost of $159,000.00. Followed by a monthly rate of $2,203.86. They discussed this option at their work session on August 3. For more information on that discussion visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2021/08/04/commissioners-consider-donation-of-antique-tractor/