Soup Kitchens

As many of you know we are very fortunate to have two Soup Kitchens in Habersham; it is something that shows the generosity and compassion of our community. The Soup Kitchens serve over 100 people 6 days a week with a hot meal. Since it is a total volunteer effort you can be assured that 100% of your time or donations go to the people intended.

I was at the Cornelia Soup Kitchen yesterday; and they are in need of a couple of things.

1. Desserts (anything that can be frozen)
2. Hamburger meat (Hamburger meat is a convenient item for the cooks as there is so much they can do quickly with it)

If you would like to contribute; you can drop your items by either the Clarkesville or Cornelia Soup Kitchens Monday thru Saturday around lunchtime. Phone numbers 706 776 1399 Cornelia Soup Kitchen 706 754 3223 Clarkesville Soup Kitchen. They take monetary donations also.

Thanks in advance for your generosity,

Good move Habersham!

CB & T banker pleas Guilty to Fraud

The Home of the Big Red Apple

CB & T Court hearing

From Access North GA
Former CB&T lender not in court for hearing
By Ken Stanford Editor
ATLANTA – A hearing for a R. Randy Jones, a former lender for Cornelia-based Community Bank & Trust, charged in an alleged faulty loan scheme, was scheduled Thursday but Jones was not in court.

Federal court officials in Atlanta said the hearing was scheduled at 11:00 but Jones, 50, was not in the courtroom although his attorney, Bruce Maloy, was. Efforts to reach Maloy since he left court have been unsuccessful.

A number of reports, including one in the October 21st edition of Time Magazine, indicated Jones was expected to plead guilty to at least one criminal count.

CB&T was taken over by the FDIC earlier this year which sold it to South Carolina Bank & Trust.

Link: TIME Magazine

Statement from the Bi-partisan Committee

By: Co-Chairs, Habersham Joint Bi-partisan Special Committee

Robert C. Guthrie, Dale H. Latty

“The Joint Bi-partisan Committee commends the Habersham County Board of Commissioners on action taken to delay all future expenditure on Judicial Facility plans that are site specific to Hills Crossing and that the decision to locate a Judicial Facility is now delayed until the seating of two new commissioners after January 1st. However, we reiterate that all pending legal action is also tied directly to the facility plan itself. It is the position of the Joint Committee that proposed non-judicial related “offices” were in no way approved by the voters for consideration under SPLOST 5 for inclusion in a new Judicial Facility. We continue to support the pending Injunction as a means to definitively clarify this important point of law and to focus project funding on the creation of a cost-effective Judicial Facility that will serve the taxpayers of this county for many years to come.”

Hills Crossing Courthouse Financing 10 Million Bond Issue

From: Bob Guthrie
Judicial Center Financing

Date: Friday, November 12, 2010, 11:36 PM

At 3:15 p.m. Wednesday Nov 10, while many of us were preparing to attend that evening’s celebration of the 235th birthday of the U. S. Marine Corps and making plans to attend Veteran’s Day celebrations the following day, both events in honor of those veterans who have fought and those that died, to preserve the freedoms we cherish, including the right to have a say in our government’s decisions, our county commissioners’ office posted an agenda on the courthouse bulletin board for their Monday evening meeting. (Agendas are posted to inform the public of the items to be acted upon at the meeting.) This agenda listed the consideration/approval to issue $10 million dollars of General Obligation Debt to “be used to finance all or a portion of the cost of (i) certain capital outlay projects for the County..”. The words “SPLOST5″ and “Judicial Center” were not used so unless someone asked for clarification (which I did) you would not know that this debt was aimed at continuing, even expediting, construction of the controversial judicial/administrative center project. This project calls for two judicial centers, one at the existing courthouse and one outside the city limits at Hills Crossing.

Two court actions are pending related to this project. One, a recall of three commissioners, was filed in early July and has yet to be heard in court. The other, an injunction to stop the use of SPLOST5 funds for the construction of the judicial/administrative center at the Hills Crossing site is scheduled for a court hearing December 1st. If the commissioners approve going ahead with the issuance of the $10 million General Obligation Debt then the county will incur very substantial, non-refundable, expenses for underwriting, legal and other costs associated with this debt issue. The debt issue document also states that an annual tax levy upon all property within the county subject to taxation is irrevocably pledged should the sales taxes collected be insufficient to satisfy annual debt payments. The debt cannot be prepaid, so once it is issued the county cannot pay it off early if the various court actions underway (and other actions contemplated) result in the cancelation of the Hills Crossing judicial/administrative center project.

Both of our newly elected county commissioners who will be taking office in January, Andrea Harper and Chad Henderson, along with Congressman Rick Austin and Senator Jim Butterworth are on record as opposed to this project going forward as currently planned. WCHM radio has invited the County Commissioners, the Bi-Partisan Committee and the Injunction Sponsors to participate in a forum to answer questions from the public relating to the new judicial center project. Two of the three invitees accepted. One (the county commissioners) declined to attend and answer questions from the public.
A Protest Rally is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Monday, November 15th, at the Gazebo next to the courthouse. Everyone is encouraged to attend this rally and stay for the commissioner’s meeting at 6:00 p.m. Commission Chairman Doug Vermilya is still insisting that only a few citizens object to separating the judicial functions of the county and constructing a second judicial/administrative center out of town at the Hills Crossing site. The public needs to let him know that he is wrong and that MOST citizens strongly object to this plan!
Please invite all of your friends to take this opportunity to once again express their dissatisfaction with the county commissioners’ actions and to demand that the planned debt issue not be approved.

Thank you. Bob Guthrie