By Tara DeRock Mahoney
Senior Staff Writer

Morgan Memorial officials confirmed this week that they have purchased an eight-tenths of an acre residential lot adjacent to the hospital for use in a future expansion.
“We closed last week,” said hospital CEO H.D. Cannington in an interview on Tuesday.
The hospital did not acquire any debt in purchasing the $100,000 piece of property, opting instead to use operational cash to pay for the land, said Cannington.

30625 fight for zipcode escalates

story by Jessica Blomquist • file photo by Angelina Bellebuono • illustration by Chris Howe

Would be profitable even without county subsidy, treasurer says

By Tara DeRock Mahoney
Senior Staff Writer

    The Morgan County Board of Commissioners was expected this week to roll back the annual millage rate to 8.35 mils for fiscal year (FY) 2009, down from 8.43 mils in fiscal year 2008.
    “The millage rate is going down, below the rollback rate,” said County Manager Michael Lamar in an interview last Tuesday. “The rollback was not difficult to achieve, in light of the total reevaluation [of county property values] last year.”
    The total county budget for FY09 is $14.7 million, up 2.84 percent from this year’s budget of $14.3 million.
    The two biggest changes in the budget, according to Lamar, are an increase in the utilization of the county’s general fund balance, up in FY09 to $651,000 from $346,000 in FY08, and a fairly significant decrease of an expected $117,000 in revenue from non-business licenses and permits in FY09, due mainly to slowdowns in both residential and commercial construction.
    The county’s largest departmental expenditures in FY09 are expected to be in roads and bridges ($1.7 million), law enforcement ($1.9 million) and healthcare ($1.2 million). Other top departments are jail operations ($991,000), solid waste and recycling ($880,000), the fire department ($571,000) and parks administration ($437,000).
    In a millage rate comparison for other counties either near Morgan or of similar size, Lamar showed that a millage rate of 8.35 is about average. Butts County and Jones County, in 2006, had millage rates of 15.4 and 14.7, respectively; Greene, Jasper, Newton and Walton counties all had tax rates in excess of 10 mils.

Local students show steady rise, officials state

Pit stop of Memorial Wall draws a crowd in Morgan County

story by Jessica Blomquist • photos by Angelina Bellebuono