Candidates for local commissioner, school board races discuss different issues at recent political forum
In Gordon County Commissioner District 1, M. L. Bud Owens and Mike Farley, who are vying for the spot being vacated by Commissioner Jeff Gazaway, answered questions concerning Community Block Grants.
“Anytime you have a grant that is coming into the community, that is money that is going to aid the community,” said Farley. “And with taxes being an issue, anytime of grant money we can get to aid, whether it’s a new recreation department or a new fire station, a school system or wherever it can be used, that would be a huge benefit to our community and less of a tax burden on the citizens of Gordon County.”
“When grant dollars are available, we have to be careful but we also have to seek those that are available,” said Owens. “Community block grants are really a great way to pay for some of your capital projects in the community, for example, the George Chambers Resource Center is being expanded with a community block grant; the Ag Center which is located on the old Experiment Station property- that came from a community
block grant. We can see a lot of great things happening in our community and a lot of capital projects happening with those community block grants so I am very much in favor of looking at those.”
In the race for Gordon County Commissioner District 3, incumbent Norris Sexton and challenger Wes Roland answered a question concerning the county’s issuance of pilot agreements.
“We’ve always had a positive out come by doing that,” said Commissioner Sexton. “It’s going to create more jobs. It’s going to create extra tax money. If it’s a sound company and it’s reputable, we can do that without any problem.”
“I think we need to do almost anything to get new jobs in here,” said Roland. “We need to get things right to be more competitive with surrounding counties.”
In the race for Gordon County Commissioner District 5, incumbent Kevin Cunningham and his challenger, Kathy Ryan, answered questions concerning Gordon County holding large reserves in the general fund.
“As a person, I think it’s good to have a reserve in case of emergencies,” said Ryan. “As a county, I would have to take into account how much reserve we need. I am not a current commissioner and do not know the current budget needs and how much the fire department needs in reserve but we should spend our tax dollars wisely. We should have a reserve and we should have a balanced budget. I think that’s very important.”
“I think it is impor- tant for the county to have a reserve and we do have a reserve; I think four to six months is a good number,” said Commissioner Cunningham. “I know of nobody in their personal life who likes to live paycheck to paycheck; the county does not need to live paycheck to paycheck. We know that when emergencies come up or the need arises, it is good to have the money there. On another note, a good reserve gets the county a good bond rating and a good credit rating, which helps out our industries, which helps our county. When new industries look to Gordon County, they look at our bond ratings and our credit rating. They look at our schools and our infrastructure. So it’s very important for Gordon County to have a reserve.”
For Gordon County Board of Education Post 4, incumbent Bobby Hall and challenger Jeff Knight answered a question concerning operating the school system with a limit millage rate of 20.
“I truly believe, without looking hard at the numbers, we are wasting money up top and in different areas of the schools,” said Knight. “I don’t think the SPLOST money has been appropriated correctly, that it’s been spent in the right areas it was supposed to be spent in. I don’t think every school in the district is getting an allotment of SPLOST dollars. I think those are areas, for whatever reason, there is no excitement at the school board, there is no energy at the school board; it’s just been kind of falling at the wayside. That’s one of the areas we need to address and right the ship.”
“Let me say, we are at 20 mils, but he governor has withheld over the last eight years $38 million dollars just from Gordon County Schools,” said Hall. “That had to be made up. We chose not to lay teachers off or make the class sizes larger because we cannot educate the kids with a larger class size. SPLOST money is decided before it is ever funded. We make sure on the Board of Education that it is used the way it was determined or decided to, that was took to the voters. As the money is becoming more available, and the Governor is now beginning to give money back to the system, the 20 mils will continue to go back down.”
In the race for Gordon County Board of Education Post 6, incumbent Chris Johnson and his challenger Mark Johnson answered a question regarding their support of ESPLOST.
“Gordon County as a system would really struggle to function without ESPLOST,” said Christ Johnson. “ESPLOST is what funds our facilities; it funds our buildings. Without it, we do not have tax base or the funds to keep those facilities going, and I do support it 100 percent.”
“I fully support ESPLOST,” said Mark Johnson. I also support them being allocated properly. I believe there was some talk about repairing some roofs on some of the schools. We had an ESPLOST passed and there has been some discussion about that and where it was allocated, but yes, I am totally for it.”
The full Candidate Forum can be viewed on the Gordon County Chamber of Commerce’s website at www.gordonchamber.org.