News

7/20/2005 - 2 commissioners disagree with move to borrow more than $7 million

Even though two commissioners disagree, the Tallapoosa County Commission approved the final steps to borrow more than $7 million at its meeting Monday.

Commissioners Charles Shaw and T.C. Coley both voted against the bond issue, saying it would drag the county even further into debt.

"No one here is concerned about the future, especially since it's an election year," Coley said after the meeting. "This will make our debt service go to 2035. This is going to hit the next group (of commissioners) pretty heavily."

The money is coming from the refinancing of bond issues from 2001 and 2002.

It will go into the county's general fund, and Commissioners Johnny Allen, Bill Thweatt and Dylan Oliver said it could be used for needed road repairs and maintenance, among other things, in the county.

Oliver said he didn't want to see the county go into further debt, but he also said residents in his district have concerns about roads that couldn't be addressed without additional funding.

"The thing I hear most in my district is about roads," he said. "I'm not really for refinancing, but if it will benefit the people in the county, I am for it. We need money for roads, and we also need money for the new annex courthouse in Alexander City."

Oliver said he did not know how the money would be divided, but Coley said he hopes it wouldn't be based on the amount of county roads in each of the districts.

Although the modified unit system, the system the public voted the county use when it comes to roadwork, says money should not be divided that way, at least one source of money in the recent past has been funded similarly.

Last year, commissioners divided up funds from the landfill in Salem based on road mileage, giving Districts 1 and 2, which have the least amount of roads, 12 percent of the funding, and the other three districts 25 percent each.

"I hope they won't do that," said Coley, who represents District 1. "Districts 1 and 2 will be paying the taxes on the bond issue, but they won't see any of the services."

Coley said he and Shaw were not included in any of the discussions leading up to the passage of the bond issue, and it wasn't discussed with either of them how the money would be spent.

Oliver said he needed it for roads, but it could also be used to complete the C.J. Coley Tallapoosa County Courthouse Annex in Alexander City.

A $1.5 million bond issue was floated separately for the annex courthouse, but since then, Coley said the costs have increased by about $700,000 to $800,000.

"It wasn't until after we borrowed the money for the annex that the architects came back with a different set of numbers," he said. "We haven't been included in the discussions about how this money will be used, but I would hope we would get enough resources to complete the project."

Whatever the case may be, Coley said he is very concerned that he and Shaw were not included in the discussions.

If he was, Coley said he would have wanted to know exactly what it would be used for and if the county could handle the additional debt.

"My biggest concern is that three people decided how to spend this money, and we were elected to represent this county as a whole," he said. "We should put all the issues facing the county on the table and discuss them together. Then we can make good, sound decisions. Unfortunately, though, that's not always the case."

Source: The Dadeville Record
By Laura McAlister

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