Routine end-of-meeting activity reports revealed a veritable grab-bag of news nuggets at the most recent monthly gathering of the Eatonton-Putnam Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Partnership (EPTAH).
· The Putnam County Charter School System could be hit with picking up the tab for as much as $6 million later this year as the state government apparently looks for ways to cut its budget.
Putnam Board of Education Chairman Steve Weiner said the board office was notified last week that the state might eliminate paying for a portion of health insurance coverage for classified employees – secretaries, aides, maintenance workers, janitors, and bus drivers – but continue paying for certified employees – teachers, administrators.
Besides the hit on lower-income workers, shifting out of the state insurance plan would leave the school system at a competitive disadvantage for staffing, Weiner said. Otherwise, a classified employee could see his or her share of family coverage rise drastically from the current $950 a month.
· Reported interest in one, if not two, hotels in downtown Eatonton. One involves the vacant Eatonton Hotel/county administrative annex on South Madison Avenue; the other is the also vacant former county jail on West Marion Street. Investors in the latter, under consideration as an Airbnb-type operation, are reportedly considering an intriguing outside-of-the-box sales pitch to entice visitors: spend the night in jail.
· One, possibly two, coffee shops for downtown Eatonton. Lou Benjamin said the Georgia Writers Museum would add a coffee shop to its operations on South Jefferson Avenue as early as April. The shop would add a casual “hanging out” space for visitors and locals alike. Added benefits include getting more people, visitors and locals alike, through the doors and adding dependable cash flow for museum operations.
· The rate of inflation may be waning, but its impacts remain looming. The cost of asphalt for road resurfacing a couple of years ago was $110,000 a mile, but last year’s eight-mile resurfacing of Pea Ridge Road ran $250,000 a mile, County Manager Paul Van Haute said. T
he Snell asphalt plant at the Rock Eagle Industrial Park and a more stable oil market will eventually help, but the county commission has already scaled back this year’s list of resurfacing projects.
· Likewise, construction costs for a new elementary school that originally were estimated at $20 million have ballooned to nearly $40 million – a price still less than what it would cost to bring the current 70-year-old building on South Washington Street up to code, Weiner said.
· Recruiters are scrambling for workers with specific skills – or just entry-level interest in traditional jobs ranging from law enforcement, firefighters, and medical workers to elementary school teachers and reporters.
· Art – specifically, proposals for more public art like murals on the sides of buildings – drew comments from the Eatonton Historical Preservation Commission’s Lynn Romine about “unenforceable” ordinances.
“Whatever gets done, it will get opposition,” the school board’s Weiner said.