Dougherty County officials to revamp alcohol ordinance

ALBANY — The Dougherty County Commission will consider a restructured, more business-friendly approach to alcohol license applications during its first business meeting of April.

The commission heard proposals presented during its work meeting Monday by County Attorney Spencer Lee and County Clerk Jawahn Ware that are designed to “streamline” the alcohol license application process while removing a barrier that limits licenses to business owners who reside in the county.

“The language of an amendment to our code that deals with alcohol licences would read, ‘No license hereunder shall be granted to any person unless the person or such person’s manager or the person actually in charge of the operation of the business is a resident of Dougherty County,’” Lee said. “The way our code now stands, no one is granted a license unless they live in the county.

“We’ve skirted that by allowing a manager to apply for licenses, but this amendment would allow a license as long as there is a responsible manager of the establishment who resides in the county. This mirrors city code.”

Ware followed by outlining a plan to collect a $50 administrative fee for background checks on individuals applying for alcohol licenses.

“Currently, there is no charge for the background checks,” Ware told the commission. “This fee and the proposed code amendment would streamline the process and allow us to recover a portion of our costs in the process.”

The commission is expected to vote on both matters at its April 4 meeting.

The board is also expected to vote on a road safety funding matter at its next meeting after hearing a report from Public Works Director Larry Cook about new Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant funds made available by the state Department of Transportation. Cook asked for the OK from the commission to apply for up to $212,075 in competitive safety improvement funds.

If the county received the entire amount from its “wish list,” it would be responsible for a 30 percent match, or $63,622.

“These funds are in addition to the Safety Action Plan funds we get from GDOT every other year,” Cook said. “There are specific, safety-related items that the funds would be used for.”

County Administrator Richard Crowdis said Dougherty County can compete for such funds that require a local match because the commission includes road maintenance funding in its SPLOST allocations.

“We have funding available for the match because we allocate SPLOST funds for road improvement projects,” Crowdis said. “A lot of other communities don’t do that.”

Also at Monday’s meeting, county Tax Director Shonna Colley told the board her office had collected 96 percent of property taxes due for 2015. That figure represents $22,637,080 of the $23,565,300 due.

“When we complete our tax sale, we expect to collect from 98 to 99 percent of property taxes due,” Colley said.

The tax director also noted that the county’s tax digest of $2.011 billion is down less than 1 percent, and the $667,916 in motor vehicle taxes represent a 5 percent decrease.

Easter Seals Southern Georgia Executive Director Beth English addressed the board briefly during the meeting, noting that the agency has an $11 million economic impact in the community.

“We employ more than 300 people across South Georgia and North Florida and 72 locally,” English told the commission. “Most people know us as a charitable organization, but I wanted to point out today that we also partner with you and your economic development folks.”

The County Commission also heard the Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission’s quarterly report, presented by EDC President Justin Strickland, and a report on contract opportunities for small and minority businesses from Leadership Conference for Civil Rights Coordinator William Wright.