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Larry Stanford

Editor

The recent issue with Dollar General over its signage brought the Yatesville City Council to the realization that without any zoning laws, the city has no say in who or what can come into Yatesville. At the January meeting, Upson County Planning and Zoning Director Doug Currier met with city leaders and explained some of the options they can use in developing zoning ordinances.

At their February meeting, Mayor Cecil Moncrief updated the council on information he is seeking on zoning laws.

“Have any of you been on municode.com and looked at that website? he asked. “I went on and looked at it. They give you a lot of information and things to look at. I’ve also contacted Three Rivers Regional Commission, and they are supposed to be getting me up some stuff that they may have that we can take a look at also. So we’ll be working on that, trying to get all that stuff set together. It is just something that we are going to have to be very careful with when we do it, to make sure that we are fair and equal to everybody and everything.”

The council members agreed to look into municode.com.

In other business, the council voted 3-0 to pay the city water system supervisor, Tommy Andrews, $10 an hour for seven hours of extra work he did recently. The action came at the council’s meeting on Feb. 11. Council members Robert Releford and Elmer Kent were absent.

Mayor Cecil Moncrief noted that Andrews is paid to look after the water system – draw samples, put the chemicals in, and turn the pumps on and off. But recently, said Moncrief, one of the system pumps at the school well went down, Andrews had to spend extra time getting the pump back online, and it cost him money on his regular job.

“Tommy tied up about 7-8 hours of one day, trying to get everything together,” said Moncrief. “I know we pay Tommy every month, but when Tommy doesn’t go and do his normal activities, it costs him money. He herds cows and hauls cows for different people. But that day he had to stay here to make sure all that stuff was taken care of.

“What I’d like to do is pay Tommy $10 an hour for those seven hours he worked on that pump,” recommended Moncrief. “I think we need to take a look at it. If he does anything like that above and beyond, then we need to compensate him for his time.”

Council member Phyl Gatlin agreed with the mayor.

“Absolutely pay him for his time,” she said. “We pay him a certain amount to do a certain amount.”

Gatlin made a motion to approve paying Andrews $10 an hour for seven hours. Council member Wanda Dozier seconded the motion and it was approved, 3-0.

In other business, Gatlin said the city is planning to start up its Yatesville Market Day again in April. The city hosted two Market Days in September and October of last year, inviting farmers to bring their harvests to town, and also inviting arts and crafts and food vendors to sell their wares. Market Day is held in downtown Yatesville behind Mulling Grocery.

Gatlin said they will start Market Day up again in April and run it through October. Market Day is one Saturday a month, and she said they are currently debating on having it the second Saturday of every month, or the third Saturday of every month.