Discussion of duties of the Board of Directors, number of meetings.  Three times per year with an annual meeting seems to be the final decision.  The president or secretary (anyone, really) can call for a special meeting on urgent matters as they happen.

Discussion of change from an April meeting to a “spring” meeting.

Treasurer, Sue Neil reports $498.52 bank balance.  All fees have been paid to State.  $10. voluntary dues per year.

Clint Smith, candidate for the House Seat of Amos Amerson gave a brief speech.

Guy La Boa, candidate for Chairman of the County Commission, spoke on his reasons for seeking the post.

Emily Lewy spoke on package sales, petitions and the various options for Sunday liquor sales.  There was a general discussion of the merits of package sales.  Only one person spoke against it.

This was a lengthy discussion and evolved into political commentary on elected officials and their attitudes toward each other and the public.

Sandy Steele presented an update on the status of the proposed dog park.  It seems that the Mobile office of the Army Corps of Engineers is holding up the final approval.  A Lake Lanier Corps of Engineers official will make a trip to Mobile to walk through the plans

PAWS organization has officially separated from the County and will now function solely as a spay/neuter organization.  This decision was made after a lack of cooperation with the County government.

Regina Harper Odom reported on the decision by the county to maintain the existing recycling program.

Jacque Hoffman, Secretary

Judge Hugh Stone became the second judge to rule in Ariemma’s favor that the City of Dahlonega’s efforts to unseat Ariemma from the City Council were unconstitutional.

Judge Stone’s Order reads, “The City is hereby restrained and enjoined from proceeding to remove Petitioner (Ariemma) as a member of the City Council…”

One would hope that city employees and elected officials who had ganged up on Ariemma and then cast aspersions on Judge Alderman following her ruling in favor of Ariemma would be duly humbled by this smack down.  Alderman’s ruling left the City wiggle room to appeal.  Judge Stone clearly declares that the harassment must stop.

The Court never considered the merits of the City’s allegations against Ariemma.  The City Council had no authority to take legal action they attempted.  The process was instigated by City Manager Bill Lewis and abetted by the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) in an effort to broaden their authority.  Hopefully, Judge Stone’s Order will prevent further “bullying” by elected officials throughout the State of Georgia.

The merits of the allegations against Ariemma were previously discussed on this website

http://www.lumpkinsunshine.com/main/hatchet-job-on-ariemma-backfires/#more-655

The facts were pretty much summed up by the City’s own investigator in her report that City Manager “Lewis had reinterpreted the facts.”

Chalk one up for the people.  Limiting the authority of pompous elected officials is always a good thing.

Animal control officers and veterinarians in Jackson and Southern Hall counties are urging people to make sure their pets’ rabies vaccinations are up to date after authorities confirmed that a rabid cow had attacked its owner and rabid bobcat had attacked two dogs.

“Our pets are a buffer between people and wildlife, and if people get their pets vaccinated that helps protect people,” said Dr. Kinsey Phillips, owner of Commerce Veterinary Hospital.

On Jan. 20 a Gillsville man had to shoot a bobcat that went after his dogs in his yard near the Jackson-Hall county line. A week earlier, a Maysville farmer was attacked by one of his cows, and the animal later was determined to be rabid.

Experts are calling both cases unusual but are not ready to say what the early and odd rabies cases mean for summer in Northeast Georgia, when reports of rabies seem to increase.

There were 66 confirmed cases of rabies in animals in 2011 in the 10-county region served by the Northeast Georgia Health District. There were 17 confirmed cases in Hall County in 2011, which is served by a different health district, according to news release issued last month.

The bobcat was the first animal in Hall County to be diagnosed with rabies this year, and it is the first time animal control officers there have seen a case of rabies in a bobcat.

“Generally, we deal with skunks, foxes and raccoons,” said David Jones of the Hall County Animal Control Department. “We’re hoping that this will be an isolated incident, but only time will tell.”

Jones surmised that the bobcat had probably gotten into a scuffle with a skunk, fox or raccoon and became infected with the disease.

It is very rare to see rabies in a cow, Phillips said.

The Maysville farmer who called Phillips’ office had told the large animal vet working on the case that the cow knocked him down and attacked him. Both the veterinarian and the farmer had rabies shots after coming into contact with the animal, Phillips said.

“Farmers don’t generally vaccinate cows,” Phillips said. “It’s usually your carnivorous animals that get vaccinated because usually when your herbivores like cows and goats get exposed or get infected — they generally don’t expose people. It’s unusual that a person would get exposed from a cow.”

To be safe, pet owners should make sure their animals are vaccinated and stay way from any animal that is acting strangely. While some animals — like foxes, skunks and coyotes — act aggressively when they are infected, others, like raccoons just seem disoriented

A rabies alert has been issued for the Julian Baugh Road area of North Hall after a rabid skunk came in contact with a dog.  Animal owners are encouraged to vaccinate their pets and livestock for rabies.

Vaccines are available for $10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at the Hall County Animal Shelter at 1688 Barber Road in Gainesville and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia at 845 W. Ridge Road in Gainesville.

The skunk was shipped to the Georgia Public Health Lab, Virology Section in Decatur and confirmed positive for rabies on Monday. This is the 15th confirmed case of 2011.

Alert signs have been posted in the area where the rabid skunk was found. If you live in this area or you see an animal acting abnormally, contact Hall County Animal Services at 770-531-6830 or during non-working hours call Hall County Dispatch at 770-536-8812.

Animal owners are encouraged to vaccinate their pets and livestock for rabies.

Vaccines are available for $10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at the Hall County Animal Shelter at 1688 Barber Road in Gainesville and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia at 845 W. Ridge Road in Gainesville.

The skunk came in contact with two dogs Oct. 31. The skunk was shipped to the Georgia Public Health Lab, Virology Section in Decatur and confirmed positive for rabies on Thursday. A man then came in contact with a raccoon in the same area later that week. The raccoon was confirmed positive for rabies on Tuesday. The man started rabies treatments immediately.

These are the 11th and 12th confirmed rabies cases of 2011.

Alert signs have been posted in the area where the rabid skunk was found. If you live in this area or you see an animal acting abnormally, contact Hall County Animal Services at 770-531-6830 or during nonworking hours call Hall County Dispatch at 770-536-8812.

Animal owners are encouraged to vaccinate their pets and livestock for rabies. Vaccines are available for $10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at the Hall County Animal Shelter at 1688 Barber Road in Gainesville and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia at 845 W. Ridge Road in Gainesville.

RESERVOIR PLANS GET BOOST IN NORTH GEORGIA:  A new state law has reinvigorated plans for a new reservoir on a North Georgia site owned by the city of Atlanta.  Two competitors presented plans recently to the Dawson County Commission for a reservoir on up to 2,200 acres of the 10,130-acre Dawson Forest property the city bought in the early 1970s as a potential site for a second airport.

The project would yield up to 100 million gallons of water per day, enough to serve the rapidly growing Atlanta region either as a major complement or alternative to Lake Lanier, depending on the outcome of the long-running legal tug-of-war over water allocation between Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

“We’re going to have to impound water in North Georgia, not only to supply Atlanta but to supply ourselves,” said Gary Pichon, a Dawson County commissioner and reservoir supporter. “If Atlanta doesn’t have adequate water supply in the future, Georgia starts to look a lot like Mississippi.”

But to become reality, the Dawson Forest Reservoir still must await a final result in the tri-state water war.

Absent a settlement of that dispute, Gov. Nathan Deal and legislative leaders are hesitant to create additional water supplies in a river basin that Georgia shares with either of the other two states. The Dawson Forest Reservoir would be formed by damming a tributary of the Etowah River, which flows from Georgia into Alabama.

The proposed reservoir also must surmount opposition from environmental advocates worried about the effects of piping huge quantities of water out of the Etowah basin and from local residents against flooding the pristine property.

Atlanta industrial developer Jerry Daws, president of Republic Resources Inc., first proposed the reservoir more than two years ago.

At the time, he was working in partnership with the Dawsonville, Ga.-based Etowah Water & Sewer Authority. But since then, the two have parted ways and become competitors.

The General Assembly passed legislation this year allowing municipal water systems to form public-private partnerships to finance and build water improvements. In the spirit of that measure, publicly owned Etowah is now partnering with New Jersey-based American Water Co. on plans for a $650 million reservoir covering 1,200 acres.

“We sought additional resources because this project is too big for us,” Jim King, Etowah’s board chairman, told Dawson County commissioners Sept. 22 during a public hearing at Dawsonville City Hall. “American Water is the largest private provider of water in the United States. They have the resources, the expertise and the funding to do this project without one red cent coming from Dawson County or the state.”

Etowah General Manager Brooke Anderson emphasized the water authority’s local connections in his pitch to the county commission.

“We are part of this community,” he said.

But Daws argued that his Atlanta-based company is the only competitor offering to make Dawson County a “true partner” in the project.

Under Republic Resources’ proposal to invest $800 million in a 2,200-acre reservoir, the county would receive a one-time $7 million “advisory fee” for its assistance with the project and estimated annual payments of $8.3 million to $10.2 million upon full operation of the reservoir.

“They’re the local guys,” Daws said of Etowah. “But they’re not giving [the county] anything. … All the money is going to New Jersey.”

The city of Atlanta, which also would partner with Republic Resources, would get $10 million in advisory fees.

One aspect of the plan the competitors share is that both are offering to preserve 8,000 acres at the Dawson Forest site as perpetual green space in exchange for the land they need for the reservoir.

Neither Dawson County nor the cash-strapped state government has the financial wherewithal to acquire and save Dawson Forest, Anderson said.

“There is no money to allow the state to develop this park in a meaningful way,” he said.

But Will Wingate, vice president of advocacy and land conservation for the Georgia Conservancy, said there’s an alternative to seeking local or state funds to preserve the property or cutting a deal with one of the reservoir developers.

He offered to work with Dawson County to raise the money needed to preserve the property through a SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) referendum.

He pointed to recent SPLOSTs for open space preservation in Paulding and Decatur counties that passed despite the current anti-tax climate.

“If the public knows there’s a specific piece of property that’s critical to a community, they’re willing to pay for it,” he said.

Besides the potential to lose increasingly rare forestland, Wingate and other environmentalists are concerned about the potential effects of withdrawing up to 100 million gallons a day from the Etowah River on downstream communities.

“This would be the single-largest interbasin transfer in the state,” said Joe Cook, executive director of the Rome, Ga.-based Coosa River Basin Initiative.

Cook also pointed to a legal obstacle to the Dawson Forest Reservoir. When the General Assembly created the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District a decade ago, lawmakers prohibited piping water from outside of the district to customers inside its boundaries.

Dawson County is outside of the metro water district.
The project’s supporters say all of the legal and environmental issues surrounding the project must be fully vetted before the reservoir could win approval.
Since Atlanta owns the property, the city will have a great deal of say in whether the reservoir ever gets built and, if so, who builds and operates it.
Pichon said that, for now, he would be satisfied if the Dawson County Commission passes a resolution he plans to introduce supporting the project.
“I’m just trying to tee this up,” he said. “It would give [Atlanta] and the water companies interested in doing this some notice as to where we are.”
New reservoir
Two proposals are competing to build a reservoir in Dawson County on 10,130 acres owned by the city of Atlanta.
Republic Resources Inc.
Size of reservoir: 2,200 acres
Expected yield: 100 million gallons per day
Cost: $800 million
Etowah Water & Sewer Authority
Size of reservoir: 1,200 acres
Expected yield: 90 million gallons per day
Cost: $650 million
Sources: Republic Resources Inc., Etowah Water & Sewer Authority

Stories, essays, poetry, drawings, photographs, and recipes from animal lovers of all ages are being solicited.  All entries will be reviewed by a PAWS panel of editors.  Selected entries will be edited as needed and published in the book. The name of each author will be published.  At the author’s discretion, their age, business, school and a dedication may also be published.

Go to pawsdahlonega.com for rules and entry forms.

Submissions are needed right away!  Send to pawsdahlonegaofga@gmail.com or mail to PAWS, P.O. Box 1955, Dahlonega, GA 30533.