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July 7, 2008

City approves freeport vote

By Charles Oliver

The Dalton City Council voted 3-0 on Monday to place a referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot asking voters to approve a freeport tax exemption on inventory. The referendum will actually be three questions covering various types of materials held in inventory.

Council member George Sadosuk was absent, and Mayor David Pennington votes only in the event of a tie.

“I would hope that it would encourage additional business and manufacturing firms, and warehousing for various entities, to come to Dalton,” said council member Denise Wood.

The Dalton City Council and the Dalton Board of Education announced their support for a 20 percent freeport tax exemption on all forms of inventory last week. During that press conference, officials provided information that Whitfield County is just one of 15 of Georgia’s 159 counties without some form of freeport exemption.

A report prepared earlier this year for the Dalton-Whitfield Joint Economic Development Authority found the area’s inventory tax is a major impediment to attracting certain types of business, particularly warehousing and logistics types firms.

Mayor David Pennington said the city would lose about $360,000 annually and the recreation department, which currently has its own dedicated 1 mill tax, would lose about $156,000. Dalton voters will decide in November whether to continue to have a dedicated property tax for the recreation department or to allow the City Council to decide its budget as it does other city departments.

“We’ve been very good at belt-tightening, so I’m very comfortable that we will continue to find additional ways to be efficient with the taxpayers’ dollars,” said Wood.

The referendum will not specify how large the freeport exemption will be.

“You can’t actually name the percentage until after it passes, and after it passes, it’s up to the City Council and the school board to decide that, but obviously we have already decided upfront 20 percent,” said Pennington.

The board also voted 3-0 to:

n Authorize the mayor to purchase slightly more than an acre of property at the intersection of Ridge Street and Crawford Street for $160,000.

“Our desire is to make a pocket park out of it, to make a greenspace area to serve the neighborhoods in that area,” said council member Charlie Bethel.

n Adopt an amendment to the building code that will, among other things, mandate that each residential dwelling in an area zoned R-1 and R-1A have at least 390 square feet of total building space for each adult occupant and that no more than one vehicle per 390 square feet may be regularly parked overnight at dwellings in areas zoned R-1 and R-1A.

n Approve a beer and wine pouring license for the Hot Spot Lounge, which is under new ownership. The board had revoked the Hot Spot Lounge’s license in June for providing false information.

n Renew for one year its contract for planning and administrative services with the North Georgia Regional Development Center. The contract pays the NGRDC $67 an hour for planner’s services and $36 an hour for technician’s services.

n Approve a force reduction policy that sets standards and policies for any reductions in the city work force.

The council also held the first reading of an ordinance that would consolidate the fire department’s and police department’s policies on responding to false alarms.

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