Sometimes you need a scorecard

By
MARY ANN ANDERSON
Anyone who attended last week’s workshop of the Hazlehurst City Council needed a scorecard to keep up with the slew of motions, withdrawals and amendments that were lobbed around during the lively, sometimes heated discussion of issues with the city-owned Twisted Pine Golf Course and Hazlehurst Civic Center.
Last July, the council voted to close the golf course after it continued to lose money year after year. Ward 4 Councilman John Bloodworth said in the past few months that players, golf teams and even city employees are still using the course and the golf carts and damaging the property. And almost no one is paying to play, said Mayor Bayne Stone, adding that it’s on the honor system but golfers aren’t abiding by it. Additionally, the golf course and civic center have been advertised for sale to the highest bidder.
“How do you vote something closed and people are still using it?” Bloodworth asked before saying, “I make a motion that the golf course be closed, as closed as closed can be.”
Ward 2’s John Ramay seconded the motion, adding that the course would still need to be maintained to prevent overgrowth.
Before the vote could be made, Cody White, manager of Hazlehurst Municipal Airport, suggested making the course “walking only,” with no carts.
That’s when Ramay amended Bloodworth’s motion to make the course walking only, with Ward 3’s Diane Leggett seconding.
Charles Harrell, the city’s building inspector and code enforcer said that would prove to be a “humongous liability,” insurance-wise, without a city employee on the grounds.
With Ramay agreeing with Harrell, he then went back to Bloodworth’s initial motion to shut down the course.
That’s when City Attorney Ken W. Smith said that since Leggett had seconded the amendment, that it needed to be voted on before going back to the original motion – if the amendment failed.
Noting the liability issues, Ramay then moved to withdraw his amendment, with Bloodworth seconding.
Keeping up yet?
With no vote yet taken, Stone called it a “damn shame” that the city not keep control of the course and maintain it for the community.
Bloodworth reminded Stone that several months ago, the course was set to be leased with the city keeping ownership of the course. The lease agreement fell through, which Bloodworth called a “ridiculous rollercoaster ride when the city could have maintained ownership.”
Ramay then reminded the council that the withdrawal of his amendment needed to be voted on, a move that carried unanimously, with his adding, “Now you have the main motion on the table.”
The original motion to close the course then passed 3/2, with Leggett, Ward 1 Councilman Dywane Johnson and Bloodworth voting for it and Stone and Ramay voting against it, with Bloodworth stating afterward, “I wouldn’t spend another dollar out there … it’s wasting money and throwing it away.”
That’s when City Clerk Vernice Thompson added another hitch into the matter. She said that events have been planned for the civic center and that she has taken deposits for those events.
Bloodworth suggested reimbursing those customers and closing down the civic center entirely.
That’s when Ramay made yet another motion that the necessities of the course and civic center be maintained, with the grass mowed and the water and power to be left intact.
But Johnson asked that the citizens not be “cut off” from the civic center and made yet another motion to leave the building as is “for the people to use it.” Ramay said that he would second Johnson’s motion if he could make his amendment to it. Leggett seconded Ramay’s amendment.
Smith reminded the council that they would have to vote for the necessities be taken care of and the civic center to remain open. That motion passed unanimously.
Does anyone need that scorecard now?
The golf course and civic center weren’t the only bones of contention during both meetings. The upcoming 2023-24 budget also brought disagreement among the council. Stone went over the figures for the coming year, saying the projected revenue is $3,944,200, with expenses rising to $4,223,428 for an overall deficit of $279,228.
Bloodworth cited “out of control in spending” as the culprit for the deficit, which he stated he believed was around $800,000 and not $279,228. He noted the airport, police and fire departments are all within their budgets, but that other departments “have caused the $800,000 overage.”
But Stone vehemently stated that Bloodworth’s figure is “not true,” adding that the city has simply failed to generate enough revenue for several years and that until budgets are more realistic, it may not be eligible for grants.
The council unanimously agreed to have several called meetings to trim the budget before June 30, the last day it can be passed.
The city’s iconic caboose at the corner of Latimer and South Williams Street also brought another spirited discussion among the council. The caboose is for sale by the city through a bid process that was advertised in the May 31 edition of the Jeff Davis Ledger.
In asking the council to consider the sale, Stone stated that both local businesses and a church near the caboose need the lot it is located on for much-needed parking. He also noted that it’s unsafe, as the porch has deteriorated to the point of almost being unwalkable, with his saying, “We’ve let the thing run down. It’s dangerous.”
The caboose was a gift to the city by Southern Railway in either the late 1980s or early 1990s, but the contribution came with stipulations, among them that it had to be painted red with yellow lettering and that no alterations were to be made to it. Bloodworth asked that the city not move forward with the bid until the formal stipulations have been identified.
After hearing from Donnie Lance, who is retired from the railroad, and Steve Land, Hazlehurst’s former chief of police who was in office when the caboose was gifted, discuss locations where the caboose could be moved if the city retained ownership of it, locations that included Weatherly Park and a vacant lot on U.S. Highway 341 South, the council agreed to take it off the market.
Near the end of the workshop, with tempers already flaring over the caboose, budget and golf course, Dennis Moore of the Streets Departments addressed the council to discuss offering trash pickup for the thousand or so water customers who live outside the city limits, a move that would help raise more revenue for the city. But once again, the meeting turned heated when several issues were addressed, including the fact that only two of three garbage trucks are operational, billing of some accounts is incorrect and that citizens are complaining that their trash isn’t being picked up.
Bloodworth, visibly frustrated with the exchange and the earlier discussions, stated angrily as the agenda item died with no action taken, “This place is so dysfunctional. It’s a dysfunctional organization. We’re $800,000 in the hole, and we have too many chiefs and not enough Indians. That’s the problem with this city.”
But that wasn’t the end of it. During Thursday night’s regular session, the issue was on the agenda once more, but with calmer heads prevailing. After hearing Ramay state that garbage pickup for county water customers would bring in “possibilities of revenue,” the council voted to gather information for polling those customers to determine if the idea is feasible.
During the Citizens’ Comments section of Thursday’s meeting, Dustin Hutto of the Fire-Rescue Department took the podium to address what he termed “the decorum that sometimes takes place in meetings.” He said that he and other “citizens, taxpayers and voters” are troubled by the “degrading remarks” and “blatant profanity” that has taken place in recent meetings, particularly Monday night.
“What I’m asking is that this council stop doing that,” he said. “It has no place in these meetings. It has no place in a public forum, and it doesn’t get anything accomplished … you’re supposed to be the cream of the crop.”
Ramay addressed Hutto first, saying that he, too, was concerned about Monday’s workshop.
“I’m deeply concerned with our actions,” he stated, “and I want to apologize to all of our citizens for the action that took place on Monday. It was terrible.”
Stone also apologized, saying that he, as mayor, let the meeting “get out of hand” and admitting that as to the profanity, “I’m perhaps the most guilty one.”
In other action during the workshop and regular meeting, the council agreed for Brandy Miller of the Fire-Rescue Department to assist in collecting past due water bills, okayed the $12,000 fee for the annual watershed assessment monitoring, and also approved May’s water and sewer adjustments, departmental reports, financial statement and check register.