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District 5 challengers Locke Arnold (left) and Gisela McGugan participate in the Farm Bureau political forum on Tuesday night.
District 4 County Commissioner candidates Bruce Harkness and Wade Rhodes were so excited to talk to the people Tuesday night that they often blew through the red light.
Not on the highway, mind you, but the friends-turned-rivals often talked through the end of their allotted time for each question to get their message out during the Farm Bureau Political Forum at North Georgia Technical College, which hosted all three county races and both Board of Education races.
Early voting begins Monday, April 29.
The forum was co-sponsored by The Northeast Georgian, the Habersham County Chamber of Commerce and WCON Radio.
Harkness is seeking a second term, while Rhodes – a longtime real estate developer and youth mentor Harkness said he was happy that Rhodes opposed him, which made him get out and work and talk to people about their needs.
“I want to represent those people who believe they are nobody in this county. Those are the people I want to fight for. I want to be their voice and stand up for those who have nobody else to stand up for them,” Harkness said.
Growth in Habersham is a major topic for both candidates, who have talked at length about where and how the future could be shaped.
“Growth is at our front door coming right up 985,” Rhodes said. “All you have to do is look at the industry and traffic on 365 and the plans for the inland port. As a community, we have to decide who we want to be, what we want to look like and where we want that growth to be. We have a great education system, and we have to make sure our kids are ready for those jobs and that we provide the right job for them.”
Harkness agreed that the growth needed to be confined to the 365 corridor.
“I don’t want to see us ruined and turned into Hall County, Gwinnett County or Forsyth County,” Harkness said. “I believe in us trying to keep our culture and our values. We need jobs for our young people, but we need to make sure industry comes in a certain area to not spoil the beautiful mountains of the county.”
Both agreed that continuing to raise taxes on the homeowners is not the way to pay for the future. Harkness suggested that the county has to get better at pursuing grants, while Rhodes said correctly assessing commercial property was the key to increasing revenue.
Rhodes said he wants to see improved communication throughout the county.
“Your voice has to be heard. You have to attend county commission meetings and planning development meetings,” Rhodes said. “We have to communicate with each other and work together as a community.”
In District 5, incumbent Ty Akins did not attend the forum, but challengers Locke Arnold and Gisela McGugan came to express their views.
Future plans for a new Habersham County jail was one area where both challengers expressed unique solutions.
“Many people have shared with me that they want a new jail,” McGugan said. “I personally do not believe we need a new jail. We need to spend money fixing those areas that need to be renovated and brought up to code.”
“We can use the property adjacent to the jail for a new 400-bed jail, but I would also like to see a 1,000 to 2,000-bed storage facility," Arnold said. "The courts are overflowed. They are not processing the cases as fast as they are being arrested. We just need a place to feed these people (from other counties). You take a 2,000-bed facility, $100 a day, that’s $73 million. It sounds crazy, but it will work.”
The evening began with District 1 candidates for commissioner, whose election profiles appear in Friday’s edition.
School board
Transparency was a big topic in the forum for the open Board of Education seats.
Brett Barden, who is challenging Doug Westmoreland in District 1,
“When you look at these board meeting minutes and watch the meetings, I find it hard to get into the details about where these dollars are going,” Barden said. “Maybe those conversations are happening in executive session, I don’t know. But there is room for improvement in hearing where each of those dollars are going, and that should be done in public. We see a lot of 5-0 votes and not a whole lot of discussion.”
“None of the budget items were ever discussed in the executive session, nor were the SPLOST items discussed in the executive session,” Westmoreland said. “Everything is public, everything is transparent. People can come to the meetings and read our board meetings and watch the video that is shown on Facebook.”
“We had a budget hearing and we had zero people show up,” Westmoreland added. “We have a large budget, yes, but we are going to take care of our kids.”
Barden said he wanted to bring “another generation’s views” to the school board, while Westmoreland stressed how well the current board works together.
“We need to keep consistency going,” Westmoreland said. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Are we satisfied? No. We want to keep growing and keep getting better.”
Dr. Robert Barron, the incumbent for District 2 seeking a fifth term, also stressed that the current board is doing well.
Barron is opposed by longtime educator Ernie Garrett, who stressed that the system’s goal should be to continue to graduate young adults while curbing unnecessary spending.