City commissioners get meeting out of way for month
The City of Cedartown’s commissioners had only one night to wrap up their business for the month of September, and for that reason the agenda was a light one for the month.
According to the agenda released by the city last week before press time,, plans were made to hear from two delegates during the upcoming session.
John Birchall, who has been helping organize efforts for the filming of Hap and Leonard, plans to address commissioners during the Sept. 11 meeting.
The commission was also set to hear from Pank Adams, seeking use of the space in front of Polk County Courthouse No. 2 for a Community Praise Service with a date to be determined.
Commissioners were also voting on whether to allow Cresencio Gonzalez Pelico to use the property for a church currently zoned C-4, set the millage rate for the year for the city, and undertake review of the forthcoming changes to the alcohol ordinance for the city to allow for breweries, wineries and brewpubs to operate within the city limits.
Those changes were presented to the commission during Monday’s session, but they weren’t yet ready to vote on them.
City manager Bill Fann explained that he wanted to be sure all of the changes made commissioners previously sought to have fixed in the legislation before it comes before a vote is completed.
He expected an October first reading of the amendments following next month’s work session during their regular monthly meeting, with a vote on the proposed inclusion allowing for breweries, brewpubs and wineries to operate in the city limits.
The issue was first presented to the city commission by assistant city clerk Edward Guzman, who has been working to update the ordinance to fall within state law before other cities can do so in hopes of taking advantage of lower fees, and thus attracting an outside business t o i nvest i n downtown Cedartown.
Brewers won’t be able to simply setup shop and begin producing suds immediately.
They’ll still have to go through alco- hol licensing and have that approved by the city commission in order to get permission to begin operations, as well as ensure that inspections are done on each building.
Earlier in the year, Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law legislation allowing for direct sales of beer and wine to customers from brewery, brewpub or winery.
The annual amounts producers can sell directly is set for both the local and state regulations is limited.
Check for more on how the meeting went on in a Tuesday update on Polkstandardjournal.com.