Monticello Is Purple Heart City

The Monticello City Council was presented road signage from Otis Clark and other members of the American Legion Post 110 recognizing the City of Monticello as a Purple Heart City, during their business meeting Tuesday.

Mr. Clark along with Legion Members Skip Davis, Bill Zaluska, Fred Paul, and Billy Johnson presented signs to Monticello Mayor Bryan Standifer. Becoming a Purple Heart City is a gracious honor for the City of Monticello and proclaims that the city is pro-veteran, said Mr. Clark. Mayor Standifer accepted the signs and recognition along with other council members and thanked the veterans for their service and support for the city of Monticello.

The Council had few action items on their lengthy agenda, and heard from Otis Clark as well about utilities for the Jasper County Community Food Bank. Mr. Clark and Diane Davis asked the city to cooperate with them on their utility charges stating that they would like to stay on the City of Monticello’s utility system that they are currently on, but showed rates provided by Central GA EMC that would allow for an extra $2,710 per year on their utilities based on their monthly average with the city.

The JCCFB advocates stated that the additional savings could bring in over 13,000 more pounds of food a year allowing for more families in the city and county to be fed. The JCCFB is located on Post Road in Monticello. Mayor Standifer asked Doug White, City Manager to look into their current rates and to bring something back to the council for consideration. He stated that the territory would have to be looked at as well as rates. Mr. Standifer commended the food bank on all of the great things it does for the community.

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The council heard from representatives on two agenda items, the first being an Urban Development Plan. Allison Roland, Project Manager for Northeast Georgia Regional Commission spoke about forming a plan that uses city stakeholders to gather information about the city and the goals that it has for development, and they come up with a blueprint for development and revitalization.

She outlined many benefits to doing the plan as it would allow the city more leverage when seeking grant funds and allows the city to focus on areas that need to be addressed. It was advertised as “another tool for community building.”

The city would incur $5,000 of the total cost which is $14,500. The remainder would be paid through the NEGRC. The process for the plan would take about six months and it would look at both business and residential areas. No decision was made to move forward with the plan on Tuesday.

The council also heard from Mr. White about a proposal to hire someone to come in and look at a job classification system for city employees. He stated that each city employee would have a meeting to discuss job duties and compensation. Then a recommendation would be made about a classification system that compares salaries and jobs of employees. He said that there were two proposals in the council packet and that this could be used in conjunction with the revision of the personnel policy.

The personnel policy has been a hot topic for the council for over a year. They have been reviewing the appeal of termination clause along with other wording and statements set by a previous council. The cost of this was between $9,000 and $15,000. Mr. White suggested that this could be done in the next five months and it could be started with the new policy around the first of next year.

The council did vote to approve the low bid for janitorial services for the city complex. They approved RC Cleaning service for $1,050 a month to clean the complex with the restrooms being cleaned twice a week.

Council members voted to advertise to fill vacant positions on the Downtown Development Authority. Currently they are seeking four additional members and there are some requirements to serve on this board.

Councilman David Wease was appointed to the Health Department board.

The council voted to approve a credit card policy that was not quite complete. Mr. White took the suggested sample policy and edited it for the city. The council then unanimously approved the policy with a few blanks in the policy on when the monthly review of the statements should be done by and the card purchase minimum and maximum. The most important piece of the policy stated that the cards had to be signed for through Lathaydra Sands, City Clerk. The council discussed several card types and companies, but there was no decision made in reference to a company being sought. It was this reporter’s understanding that cards would be issued through the current company for each council person.

The council voted to approve a state mandated amendment on the Alcohol Code and approved the consent agenda from June.