Council preparing roads referendum City to move on subdivision roads projects ►►PAGE 8
Look what's at farmers market Live Maine lobsters flown into Alpharetta weekly ►►PAGE 25
August 29, 2013 | northfulton.com | 73,500 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 13, No. 35
Johns Creek proposes $46.6M budget No tax hike as council chooses conservative path By HATCHER HURD hatcher@northfulton.com
Johns Creek sidewalk/trail system connecting dots Project moving
at a slow pace By HATCHER HURD hatcher@northfulton.com JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – Johns Creek envisions a day when it will connect neighborhoods with broad sidewalks, multiuse trails and bike paths, and while that day is a ways off, that does not mean the city is not planning and pushing forward. Like most city departments, the Johns Creek Transportation Department has to prioritize its resources.
When Johns Creek was still unincorporated, late County Commissioner Robert E. Fulton was doing what he could for parks and recreation in the area. But Fulton County turned to other interests after Newtown Park opened in the mid1990s. Commissioner Fulton wangled Shakerag Park out of a donation of land from a developer, some deft negotiating with the Fulton Board of Education and some judicious use of Fulton District 3’s discretionary environmental fund to make Shakerag Park all contiguous. Next, the commissioner negotiated a $5 million share
of a $45 million federal grant for Ga. 400 to fund the beginning of the Johns Creek Greenway and its master plan. Unfortunately Fulton died in 2004, and Johns Creek lost an influential friend. Today, the plan is alive and well. Cindy Lee Jenkins, transportation engineer for Johns Creek, is nursing it steadily along in an incremental fashion. “In 2008, the first [city] comprehensive plan identified the future Sidewalk and Trail Network,” Jenkins said. “It is a multimodal network.” That means it will provide
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – There are no surprises in the city’s 2014 budget, as the city moves ahead in the budget process. A power outage forced a postponement of the presentation of the proposed $46.6 million budget to the City Council until Aug. 22. No tax increase is proposed. City Finance Director Monte Vavra said the budget overall was conservative both in its estimates of collections and spending. “We have built in merit and COLA raises for city employees,” Vavra said. In that budget the General Fund will take up $46.6 million, which includes government services, fire and police, public works, recreation, community development and capital improvements. It represents about a $1.92 million increase over last year. Other funds in the city budget such as the E-911 Fund, Capital Project Fund, Hotel/Motel Fund and others bring the total budget to $57.5 million.
See TRAIL, Page 4
These funds have other funding sources outside the millage rate, such as the E-911Fund which is funded through a tax on telephones. Fire and police services take incur the most expense in the General Fund, at $10.1 million and 9.6 million (police up about $500,000 over 2013) respectively or 42.2 percent. The Police Department is replacing 13 vehicles this year. Government services total $16.7 million or 35.8 percent of the budget. The city has a capital improvements budgeted at $3.1 million. However, the city has been able to leverage that investment with the Ga. Department of Transportation to augment the CIP budget with an additional $4.2 million of GDOT money more than doubling the city’s CIP funding to $7.3 million. Capital improvements will include these major projects: • Sargent Rd. @ Lexington Woods Dr. roundabout – $100,000 – City. • Jones Br. Rd. Improvements from State Br. Rd. to Kimball Br. $1. 024M – City. • Road resurfacing – $200,000 – City. • Bell Rd. @ Boles Rd. con-
See BUDGET, Page 9
BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS • Funding capital projects $7.3M • Vehicle replacement fund $300,000 • Economic Development $150,000 • Patrol vehicle (9)
replacement $396,000 • Motorcycle(2) replacement $44,000 • Other Police vehicle (2) replacement $70,000 • Refresh fire turn-out gear $60,000
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