TOWNS COUNTY CIVIC ASSOCIATION
Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 1 p.m.
Towns County Courthouse, 2nd Floor Conference Room
1. President’s Remarks\Report – John: Welcomed all.
a. Present: John Clemens, Andy Williams, Lesle Howard, Joan Crothers, Anna Denton, Michael Courey, David Best, Jim Olson, Amy Barrett.
b. Hiawassee Mayor: Mayor Chastain spoke to us about the latest on water issues, aging infrastructure, money concerns, and safety concerns in re: natural disasters (tornadoes, wildfire). Long discussion at 1 hour, 20 min.
c. Membership Meeting Ideas: John will update the flyer for the Membership Meeting for First Responders. We cannot get the Civic Center on First Responders Day-10/28 because of early voting, lasting from 10/14 until 10/31. We’ll have to pick a date in November.
d. Discuss By-Laws changes: These were gone over, one by one. Because of limited time everyone agreed to check them over at home and they will be finalized at the Nov. meeting.
2. Board Reports:
a. Secretary’s Report (Motion to Approve) – Joan: Sept. 10th Minutes were emailed to BOD, Motion to approve duly made; seconded & passed.
b. Treasurer’s Report (Motion to Approve) – Leslie: Deposited $3,554.64 in our savings account as of this date; checking account balance is $500. Income: Dues; Expenses: None. Motion to approve duly made; seconded & passed.
c. Membership Report (Information Only) – Anna: Currently have 48 memberships/31 Grace Period Memberships; 3 HOA/Business/1 Grace Period HOA.
d. Website Update/Maintenance (Information Only) – David: . Upgraded WordPress programming language to a newer version of PHP in order to receive regular security updates and enhance performance. Installed “Updraft Plus,” a plugin to help backup and restore a previous versions if an upgrade breaks our site. Our basic WordPress plan only has one environment, which is production. Without a separate development environment upgrades cannot be tested before going live, so if an upgrade breaks our site, this new plugin is designed to restore the pre-upgrade version.
3. Committee Reports (significant issues)
a. Chamber of Commerce – John: Made in GA–less attendance than previous yrs.; Holiday Bazaar Saturday-Sunday, 11/1-2, 10-4 @ Rec. Center, Foster Park.
b. City of Young Harris -Anna: Valley Trail Apts. groundbreaking on 9/19/25–44 affordable rental units to be completed 10/2026. 2nd reading of rezoning & special use permit for old EMC building was tabled, owner not present. YHC Track & Athletic Fields Land Disturbing Permit approved for clearing 7/10-acre area. Land & Water conservation Fund Grant Resolution approved–$464,500 matching funds will be used for new park, trails & pavilion and rest rooms. After many years the Timberline Booster Pump work is completed.
c. City of Hiawassee-Joan: 9/2 American Tank will provide maintenance on City’s 8 water storage tanks, coating inside & outside of metal tanks, preventing rust, & sandblasting & coating cement tanks; cost $82,484. Victoria Woods residents’ pressure problems will be addressed by a SCADA system allowing operators at the plant to see pressure and make adjustments; Sile Technology–cost $14,464.27. Waterworth software 1-year contract was approved, costing $13,395. Also approved $8-11K to rent or purchase a van for Hikeawassee to bring hikers from AT to City. City’s electronic sign moratorium was extended until reviewing the Sign Ordinance is completed. The Shook House, donated to the City for economic development will be auctioned off on October 16th. First Reading held on Offenses Against Public Peace & Order Ordinance—this will prohibit disrupting public meetings.
d. Commissioner’s Meeting-Joan: 9/16 –KCI of Georgia contract raised up to $10,740 to maintain and reconstruct bridges in the County to DOT specifications. Signed maintenance agreement with AT&T for 911 dispatch system; approved application to GA Dept of Driver Services for Bulk Motor Vehicle Records, to allow County employees to drive County vehicles to training, saving money; and signed 2027 Transit Grant Application for public transportation in the County at half price: $104,103. USDA Wildlife Services will distribute oral rabies vaccine packets in the region from 10/21-28 via helicopter and airplane; safe for accidental ingestion by pets, handle with care if you find one. Frank Riley, Mark & Stephanie Wiles spoke about securing grants for wildfire prevention programs in local communities for up to $10 million for projects designed to reduce fire risk. Currently Towns Co. has 27 Firewise Communities that work with residents on wildfire prevention.
e. Water & Sewer Authority – Jim: Maintenance report sent to Florida. GPS system upgrade continues in process. Unknown/unidentified meters continue to be found.
f. Conference and Visitors Bureau- Jim: No CVB meeting in September.
g. Board of Education-Michael: The TC High School students rank 6 in the State for the mean Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score. Congratulations. The sales tax receipts and the ESPLOST tax receipts continue to be received as expected; ad valorem tax millage rate details for upcoming year have not yet been determined. 3-D printing and laser artwork in many variable outputs is now operational in the new AG center.
h. BRMEMC – Michael: Meeting is next week.
i. County Planning Commission – David Best: 9/15 Mason Tractor Company–sign permit request for additional two-sided, 8’ x 6’ on site sign-Tabled. Ronnie Maxwell, Lower Bell Creek Church – sign permit request for 4’x4’ sign, no more than 6’ high: approved. Ralph & Donna Drew – variance, Taylor Trail, corner lot abutting old road bed that is no longer used. Need a 15’ variance for setback in order to build a shop: approved. Kenny Penrod -variance: needs awning for shop. GA EPD made a mistake, requiring the owner to build the shop higher up than planned. Awning would now encroach on property line setback. Terrain and EPD mistake combined to cause hardship: variance approved. Consent Agenda, two items a.) Jeff Rada – MPA Harris Ridge, owns 20 acres. Requests to cut 32 trees, far less than 50%: approved; b.) Charles Cox – two trees over 8” in diameter: approved. Note: The TC Building Department tracks Mountain Protection (MP) permits separately from building permits. MP permits go with the land, not the owner. If sold, any future development requiring an MP permit must be done as a modification to the existing permit, even if the land was sold to a new owner, e.g. if a permit is issued to cut 50% of trees and the land is later sold, the now owner can’t get a new permit to cut more trees.
j. County Health Department – Leslie: Next meeting later in October.
4. Adjournment: Duly adjourned at 4:10 p.m.
Joan Crothers, Secretary Next Meeting: November 12, 1 p.m., upstairs Courthouse.
Specially Called Meeting to Discuss Bylaw Amendments and a Membership Meeting
Towns County Civic Association
Specially Called Meeting
October 22, 2025 at 1 p.m.
Towns County Courthouse, 2nd Floor
Present: John Clemens, Andy Williams, Leslie Howard, Anna Denton, Michael Courey, David Best, Jim Olson; Absent: Joan Crothers, on phone, and Amy Barrett.
Welcome: President John Clemens welcomed all.
Discussion on a Membership Meeting: John led the round-table discussion with all members participating.
Final Decision: We will use Michael’s list of First Responders & other public services to invite the most important ones to a Membership Meeting in January, the date & time TBD. These details will be decided at the November 12th meeting. [The Civic Center has been unavailable because of Early Voting the last 3 weeks of October and the first week of Nov. By then Thanksgiving and Christmas events take over the public’s lives.]
By-Laws: The Board should read the By-Laws and the changes so we can finalize them at the Nov. meeting and get the State’s 501(c)3 ASAP.
Adjourned: Motion to adjourn duly made, seconded and passed.
Joan Crothers, Secretary
Next Meeting: Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at the T.C. Courthouse, 2nd Floor at 1 p.m.