The Cherokee County Commission, using park bond proceeds, contracted to purchased two large tracts of privately held wilderness land that will preserve the Sutallee Trace Boy Scout trails.
The vote was unanimous, 4-0, as Post 4 Commissioner Derek Good resigned immediately at the start of the Aug. 17 meeting.
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The Cherokee Board of Commissioners have approved the purchase of two large tracts (the John Ford land marked in dark purple and the Inland Rome/Forestar property marked in pink) for public wilderness trails.
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The county is acquiring the 62-acre John Ford property located north of Lake Allatoona and the Etowah River for $620,000 and the 200-acre Forestar Real Estate Group property neighboring it for $940,224. The land is wilderness and is near what would have been the master-planned Etowah Valley/Canton West community, if it had not been rejected by Canton and county planners.
“This protects the trail from Boling Park to the Georgia National Cemetery,” said Dan Owen, spokesperson for Boy Scout Troop 241, who has worked to have the Sutallee Trace trails included in park bond greenspace purchases.
The troop has been working to complete a trail system in the area for decades, beginning as a bicentennial project in 1976. Since its inception, the trail has been designed to follow portions of the historic Sutallee Trace roadbed, which is still identifiable through the woods and extends west of Canton along the river and through the Sutallee community.
Owen said the purchase of the privately held property will complete the “pocket wilderness” zone, much of which already is U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land, Cherokee County Water and Sewer Authority land, and cemetery land.
Owen said cemetery administrators have said primitive trails would be a possibility in the future on its land. Over the years, this trail work has slowly been expanding on the CCWSA land, first with connections to Boling Park, when it was built, along with the extension to the main trail toward a historical iron furnace on Shoal Creek. The trail system on Corps land continues under a license agreement between the troop and the Corps.
Owen said the old Sutallee Trace is thought to have followed old Cherokee Indian pathways, and was marked as a major area road of the Cherokee County Map of 1895.
At the meeting, commissioners also approved, 4-0, to issue $10.7 million in Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds, which are funded by the federal stimulus. The bonds will be used as part of the voter-approved $90-million park bond issue, and the county will receive a 45 percent rebate on each interest payment, making the interest cost lower than what the county would pay if borrowed on a tax-exempt basis. The bonds in the program had a deadline date for issue of Aug. 31.
The county, at its Aug. 2, meeting unanimously approved a resolution designating Cherokee County as a “recovery zone” so that the public bonds, as well as private-sector recovery zone stimulus bonds can be issued, in respect to the county providing a conduit for developer Vince Merolla to receive $16.5 million in stimulus-backed loans so he can finish his stalled commercial project near BridgeMill.
Commissioners also approved, 4-0, a referendum resolution to put a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) renewal in front of voters on Nov. 2. The new SPLOST would replace the current one, which expires in July 2012, and is expected to generate $185 million over six years. The cities in Cherokee, which share in SPLOST proceeds according to their relative size, all submitted finalized lists for capital improvements to be included in the intergovernmental agreement, also approved unanimously by commissioners, that will allow the referendum to appear on the ballot.
Almost half the projects in the proposed SPLOST are road-related.
The commission voted down a proposal to amend the county Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance to allow on-premises consumption of alcohol in cigar shops as long as hand-rolled cigar sales comprised 60 percent of gross sales.
“This would be opening a door one step at a time to allow free-standing bars in the county,” said Post 2 Commissioner Jim Hubbard. The proposal, put forward by Good at the last meeting, received a 3-1 vote, with County Commission Chairman Buzz Ahrens opposing.
“It’s difficult to resist a legitimate business initiative,” Ahrens said, noting that restaurants are allowed to serve beer and wine.
In other business, the commission:
• decided to hold a public hearing on whether back-yard chickens should be allowed in residential zoning on Sept. 21 at the commission’s regular meeting; Post 1 Commissioner Harry Johnston proposed allowing hens, saying the county’s rules on chickens were the tightest in the region;
• approved, 4-0, two zoning change requests, with conditions, the first of Highridge Partners Inc., to change from General Commercial (GC) and R-40 (1-acre lots) at the corner Holly Street and Bells Ferry Road for a medical and health services development, with conditions; and the second of James and Barbara Kirk to rezone 14.25 acres from R-80 (2-acre lots) to AG (agricultural);
• approved, 4-0, an amendment to the Waste Management recycling contract to remove unstaffed recycling bins at Kenny Askew and Dwight Terry parks, because of illegal dumping. The amendment also establishes a flat rate per yard for the county for recycling at $2.53 per unit, which will save the county $200 a month;
• approved, 4-0, switching employee benefit consulting services and early retiree reinsurance program from Arthur J. Gallagher to ShawHankins LLC; and
• approved, 4-0, submitting a list of 11 roadways, for a total of 20 miles, in need of resurfacing, to the Georgia Department of Transportation for funding under the 2011 Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant.
