Monticello Council Agrees To Purchase CD

The Monticello City Council voted Tuesday evening to put $1.5 million into a Certificate of Deposit at Newton Federal for 12 months.

The decision came at the recommendation of new City Manager Roger Harrison who said that the account the money will be taken from, at Ameris Bank here in Monticello, has not fallen below $1.7 million in the last 12 months. He felt like it was a conservative estimate to put $1.5 million into the CD. The CD will produce some $33,000 over the course of a year.

Mr. Harrison said that if they had an emergency arise, and they need the money, the only thing the city will lose is any interest earned. The original $1.5 million is not at risk.

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The recommendation came after Mr. Harrison had reworked the budget to find savings because of the loss of revenue from Georgia-Pacific. They determined the approximate loss of revenue from the industry for gas and water will be $239,000, but he reworked the budget and found some $287,000. Therefore, the council felt comfortable investing the funds.

The decision was made to use Newton Federal as that institution offered the highest rate, and was recommended by the Bank of Monticello, which did not bid on the CD. Mr. Harrison explained the city would then have its money spread between three institutions—one small, the Bank of Monticello; one medium sized, Newton Federal, and one large bank, Ameris.

In other action at Tuesday’s called meeting, the council was informed that they had to make bond payments back to July, as the city had stopped being billed for them because of a staffing change where the money is owed. City Clerk Lathaydra Sands caught the error and called it to the institutions’s attention. The money is in the budget to make the payments.

Also, council voted to pay one payment of $50,656.07 and one payment of $73,066.68 on the park to park sidewalk project. That will take care of the city’s portion of that project, and work can begin again. The budgeted funds will come from the 2012 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) account.

In reviewing the budget, Mayor Pro Tem Stone Workman questioned why the city is paying for utilities and phone for the fire department in the city. He said, “Why are we giving fire department electricity and water,.” They all agreed to look at that in the 2020 budget.

When they got to code enforcement, they learned that budget was spent, with the transportation and tipping fees costing close to $20,000 to get rid of the two lodges that were torn down.

Council members questioned that, saying they thought the county was going to work with the city on tipping fees.

At the end of the meeting, council agreed to move forward with Christmas bonuses of $100 each for the employees.