| Chairman: Road improvement bonds may go to voters by '09
Laughinghouse discusses issues from traffic to water and sewer needs at AARP meeting By Todd Truelove Staff Writer Forsyth County Commission Chairman Charles Laughinghouse on Friday said one initiative the county government may seek within the next two years would be asking voters to approve a bond package of as much as $175 million to improve local roadways. Laughinghouse was speaking to the Forsyth County chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons at Cumming Baptist Church on a variety of county issues from traffic, to water and sewer needs, to the county's growth potential. He said the bond proposal would be in an election similar to the school system's extension of a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that's anticipated to generate $265 million over the next five years and included a $130 million bond referendum. The school bonds would be repaid with SPLOST funds, and voters approved the funding in November. Laughinghouse said the county government likely will estimate about the same amount for voters to approve in an extension of the county's sales tax. "We'll probably ask for something very similar to that figure," he said. Laughinghouse explained the bonds would enable the county to begin construction earlier to improve roads. "Under the SPLOST, you can't build it until you can get [the funds]," he said, adding that at a recent meeting of the Atlanta Regional Commission, attendees were notified $7.7 billion was being taken out of the state's regional transportation plan. "Funding is going down; construction costs are increasing," said Laughinghouse. He said one of the keys to preventing traffic congestion was to improve the intersections. There were about 50 people in attendance at the AARP meeting, and Laughinghouse said the county's increasing population is "the catalyst that leads to problems with traffic and problems with water." He said other keys for the county's success was to increase the commercial tax base, and noted two large-scale retail commercial projects -- Cousin Properties' Avenue development on Hwy. 141 near Ga. 400; and the possibility of another project on 151 acres at Union Hill Road and Ga. 400 -- property that was going to be developed by the Rouse Co. as a mixed-use retail center that would have included hotels and apartments. "There is another player that is looking at that property," said Laughinghouse. He said if the two projects come to fruition, they could bring 7,000 to 8,000 jobs to the county. Other subjects the chairman spoke on included the need to expand sewer infrastructure, changing the county's land use map to reflect how property is actually developed rather than how it is zoned, and the county's water situation. He said water and sewer infrastructure needs are being reviewed, and that the county's shortage of water last summer "wasn't a crisis of supply; it was a crisis of demand." Laughinghouse said complaints that the county received after a new tiered scale was implemented that increased water rates per 1,000 gallons based on the amount of water used per month were due in large part to irrigation. "We had -- not thousands -- but we had hundreds of customers that complained," he said. "You don't have to water your grass every day." When asking the meeting attendees to raise their hands if they had experienced a problem with their water bills, the vast majority of those present did not indicate their bills were out of line. Answering questions at the end of the meeting, Laughinghouse said the search for a county manager likely will start over with the county advertising for applications. The county administrator of Gordon County recently withdrew his candidacy for the Forsyth County position, in part because of what Laughinghouse has said was negative public comments from two of the five commissioners. "It's going to be a difficult process," Laughinghouse said. "[The applicant is] going to have to deal with the political system that exists." The chairman also said the board of commissioners will not be as forgiving with developers and builders who make mistakes on their projects. "If we don't show the development community ... that we are serious about enforcing the rules that are on the books ... they are going to continue to ask for forgiveness," said Laughinghouse. "We will not forgive." |