At the first meeting Thursday night of the newly configured Forsyth County Commission, there was a full house in the audience, and, for at least one new member, Pete Amos, still a few kinks to work out on this parliamentary procedure thing.
At one point, the commission’s new chairman Brian Tam-- who had just been elected by fellow commissioners about an hour earlier -- corrected Amos for speaking out of turn.
“Thanks for throwing the rookie under the bus at the first meeting out here," Amos quipped.
The comment drew laughter from a couple of hundred citizens there supporting sundry measures from how to fix road congestion because of church services, to yet another plan on what to do about building a county animal shelter.
Over the next few months the commission may well wish for such lighter moments. Based on interviews with commissioners, a few higher-gravity items are about to land on their agenda this year. Here are the three most pressing:
Water: Forsyth County sits on Lake Lanier but has no right to withdraw water from the lake that supplies almost all of metro Atlanta. The City of Cumming owns the water withdrawal rights, and sells it to Forsyth. The contract is up for renewal in two years, but the commission wants to ink a deal now. The city wants a rate hike.
Planning and Development: Since the boom went out of the housing market, Forsyth, one of the fastest growing counties in the nation (population has quadrupled since 1990) has been struggling with ways to spur a resurgence of building and business in the county without trundling over its appeal as a place with mostly low-density living.
Commissioner Patrick Bellwants to make it easier to build and move businesses here. Commissioners Jim Boff wants to encourage more deliberate growth. But he may be the odd man out on this commission since the chief slower-growth proponent of last year’s commission, Jim Harrell, was defeated by Todd Levent.
County animal shelter: The county has been wrangling over this for at least two years. Every time it appears on the commission agenda, dozens of animal rights advocates attend the meeting and several implore commissioners to build a no-kill shelter to replace the private facility now contracted out by the county.
In December, the former commission voted to go ahead and get the shelter built for an estimated $2.5 million. This week the commission voted to kill that deal and start over. Now they’re forming an advisory committee on how to build and fund the shelter.
Bell promised Thursday night the committee would have a recommendation within 90 days. The animal activists got up and left the room quietly as the meeting went on to other matters. They’ll be back.
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