From Bob Schwartz, City Manager
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→ City Hall planters - Friday was a good day for planting. Lauran, Stacey, Dawn, and Brittni planted flowers and shrubs in the four planters at the entrances to City Hall. They look great!
 → Newton County Tomorrow - The Newton County Tomorrow meeting discussing economic development was Friday morning. In addition to Mayor Roseberry who presided, Councilmembers Jim Windham and Terry Smith and Councilmember-elect Mike Ready attended along with Vivian Harris, Hoyt Oliver, and Bob Schwartz. Dave Bernd with the Chamber of Commerce presented an economic development briefing for about an hour and a half. This included discussion of four or five projects in the development stage. He could not release very many details and some of these may not come to fruition. But, if half of them do, Newton County will take a significant leap forward. This was followed with a panel discussion including: Mike Hopkins, Newton County Water and Sewer Authority; Samantha Fuhrey and Mike Barr, Newton County Schools; Lloyd Kerr, director of development services Newton County; and Ronnie Johnston, Mayor, and Randy Vinson, planning director for the City of Covington.
→ Northeast Georgia Regional Council – Mayor Roseberry and I attended the NEGRC meeting on Thursday. Mayor Roseberry is vice chair. While there we discussed our proposed GEFA loan with Michael Roberts who is the water program manager with the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority. He was on the program so we took advantage of the opportunity to meet with him.
→ Oxford College Tennis Teams - We are sponsoring a reception for the two Oxford College championship tennis teams. The women's team this fall and the men's team last spring were both national champions in their division. We will have a reception at city hall at 5 o'clock on Wednesday, December 2. It will feature submarine sandwiches and cookies in the shape of tennis balls. We will be checking with City Council to see if you can attend.
→ Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia – Mayor Roseberry and I attended the MEAG Mayors Summit last weekend. As usual, they had several very provocative speakers. It was the last meeting for MEAG president Bob Johnston who will retire at the end of December. Jim Fuller, vice president of finance, has been selected by the MEAG Board to become president in January.
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- Roger Martella, a Washington attorney, presented a briefing on the new EPA greenhouse gas rules. The final rules would make it very difficult to continue to operate coal power plants. However, 27 states are challenging the final rules in court (including Georgia). And, it is likely that most states will request an extension until 2018. The first court decision on this may come by the end of 2016. We will know more then.
- Lamar Norton, Executive Director of the Georgia Municipal Association presented some interesting statistics. Cities in Georgia:
- contain 8% of the landmass,
- 42% of the population,
- 68% of the jobs,
- 54% of the taxable property,
- and 80% of the gross domestic product.
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IN OTHER WORDS, CITIES ARE IMPORTANT!
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