During its bimonthly meeting last Friday, the Putnam County Board of Commissioners heard from Eatonton-Putnam Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Maggie Milner and Putnam County Environmental Health Services (EHS) Manager Kathryn Hill.
Milner gave the first of two scheduled BOC presentations for the year, outlining the Chamber's current marketing efforts and results, while Hill requested increased fees for providing new septic and well inspections and approvals.
Additionally, the board briefly addressed a recent error in the legal reporting of its budget items.
Milner stressed the Chamber’s primary effort goes toward marketing local tourism; however, she pointed out county residents probably wouldn’t see much evidence of this unless traveling elsewhere in the state.
She mentioned seven unique Eatonton-Putnam ads that rotate several times per hour on more than 20 digital billboards throughout Metro Atlanta. Also, Eatonton-Putnam materials at the Augusta Visitors Center and the Chamber’s website and printed brochures have recently been updated, featuring new, professional photography and videos to better depict the region’s active lifestyle opportunities.
She also highlighted the Southeast Emmy Award presented this summer for the joint Chamber-Tytan Pictures production of “Timeless 1977,” a short marketing film that beat out contenders from Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola to deliver Eatonton’s first-ever Emmy win.
“Hearing Eatonton get called for this marketing video was a memory I’ll hold forever,” Milner said, her voice cracking slightly with emotion.
Milner also mentioned the new sculpture trail being put together as a joint effort between the Chamber and The Artisans Village in downtown Eatonton and highlighted the creation of “Live at The Plaza,” an Eatonton-themed blonde ale developed by Putnam County’s Bruzze Brewing.
“This is something that internally we’ve wanted to see come to fruition for a long time,” she said. “We’ve seen other destinations create beverages for their community, so I think this is the start of us being able to brand to different people. It’s a different type of souvenir.”
Milner also mentioned the upcoming Aug. 17 Eatonton Expedition presented by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and featuring approximately 20 local homes and historic attractions.
“It’s been a very long time since we’ve had any type of tour of homes, but this speaks to our culture and heritage aspect of our marketing efforts for tourism,” Milner pointed out. “And I know that as of about two weeks ago, we were told there were about 300 tickets that had been purchased, which was 100 tickets more than Milledgeville had at the same time last year.”
Statistically, Milner said the first half of this year showed Putnam County short-term rentals (STRs) are currently running just under a 27% occupancy rate, which represents a 21% decrease from the same time last year. However, revenue has increased by about 11%, which she thinks represents a stabilizing statewide STR market.
Milner also pointed out that the Chamber has added 23 new investors so far this year, representing a 44% annual increase to reach 304 active investors, which reflects a 9% increase over the previous year. She said the biggest group of Chamber investors are in the home-and-garden sector, followed by healthcare and civic organizations.
“Those three have stayed true as our top categories over the last several years,” she pointed out.
To close, Milner told commissioners the annual Taste of Eatonton event has been moved back to Monday (Oct. 7) after experimenting with a Saturday date the last two years but experiencing reduced attendance and participation from local restaurants.
“We found that we don’t have enough restaurants that can afford to take a Saturday night and send people out of the restaurant, and Monday night, most of our restaurants are closed,” Miller explained. “So, we’re going to have better engagement with vendors and people being able to participate locally.”
Following Milner’s presentation, EHS Manager Hill told commissioners that her department had not issued a septic and well permit fee increase in approximately eight years. The fees would apply to new septic repairs, additions, and modifications to any kind of existing septic system, for adding buildings on a property, and to individual wells for permits and/or testing evaluations.
Bottom line, Hill asked commissioners to approve an increase from $75 to $100 for each related inspection and permit.
“By doing these changes, we’re going to bring ourselves in line with other counties in the state,” Hill said. “And some of the counties above us are actually charging a whole lot more money than we do.”
Following a brief discussion, the board unanimously approved the fee increase.
Next, District 3 Commissioner Stephen Hersey pointed out to the council that a legal notice from the county’s Board of Elections and Registration (BER) department published in The Eatonton Messenger last week appeared to suggest the county intends to borrow some $32 million in GO bonds if (SPLOST No. 10) is approved but intends to pay back only about $11 million, with the city of Eatonton responsible to pay back the rest.
“In principle, I find that difficult to believe that we could work out such an arrangement,” Hersey said to his fellow councilmembers. “I would like to know how we can do that because I would very much like to borrow money and only have to pay a third of it back.”
Hersey suggested another budget meeting should be held to address the error and any legal corrections that need to be made. This would be followed by an updated, corrected version of the BER statement to be placed in the newspaper. No date was set, but a new meeting appears inevitable.