The Gordon County Board of Commissioners has amended the Gordon County alcohol ordinance after a second reading was approved at a regularly scheduled meeting of the board, Tuesday, July 10, 2012.

“Gordon County had a Malt Beverage and Wine ordinance. As of Tuesday, that ordinance was repealed in its entirety and was replaced with a new ordinance entitled The Malt Beverages, Wine and Liquor ordinance of Gordon County,” said Gordon County Attorney, Suzanne Hutchinson Smith.

The ordinance was amended to include the sell of beverages including beer, wine, and drinks containing alcoholic beverages (liquor).

By definition, the terms “liquor” and “distilled spirits,” are used interchangeably throughout the ordinance amendment.

Distilled Spirits’ means all beverages containing any alcohol obtained by distillation or containing more than 21 percent alcohol by volume including, but not limited to, all fortified wines, according to the ordinance.

A second amendment to the Malt Beverage, Wine and Liquor ordinance, includes permits to sell beer, or malt beverages, at special events “off premises.”

According to Smith, this amendment evolved after public interest was expressed in hosting special events where it would be appropriate to sell beer alone.

A permit would be purchased from the board, after approval of the event, for a specified time and place and would expire pending a date set forth by the board in conjunction with the start and end date of the event.

Additionally, at this meeting, the board approved an agreement with Cirilian,Inc. for online registration for all sports with the parks and recreation Department. Don Holley, Director of Gordon County Parks and Recreation was present at the meeting to answer any questions.

With the approval of the contract, the board also approved to end the $2 entry fee to recreational basketball games, which was unpopular, according to Holley, and increase basketball registration fees only, by $5.

Though it was initially proposed the board increase registration fees for all sports, board members were adamant to keep the fees low, and added the reminder that no child would be turned away due to inability to pay fees if interested in participating.

The board additionally approved section IX. Grant Policies to the Gordon County Financial Policies, which was a standard operation to satisfy grants received by the county. Also, the board approved the Debris Removal and Disaster Services Proposals for Gordon County. County Administrator Randy Dowling explained the disaster services only cost the county if they are activated, i.e. a disaster occurs.

At the conclusion of the meeting, members of the Calhoun City Council, Resaca City Council, and Fairmount City Council joined the board to begin discussion of the state mandated LOST dollars renegotiations.

According to state law, every 10 years, after a census is conducted, the one percent LOST dollars must be distributed amongst the qualified municipalities in each county.

According to Dowling, the proposal by the County to distribute the LOST dollars by population was signed by the City of Calhoun and Gordon County. Resaca and Fairmount refused to sign the renegotiation and requested to reconvene the negotiations on Tuesday, July 24 at 10:30 a.m. at the Gordon County Administration Building in the conference room.

July 17

At the second July regularly scheduled meeting, Tuesday, July 17, the board discussed the fee schedules for the departments of animal control, Geographic Information System (GIS), and Building and Inspection.

Dowling recommended the board review and update the fee schedules for each of these areas. Both Animal Control and GIS’ fee schedules had not been updated since 2010, and Building and Inspection had not been updated since 2006.

Minor changes can be viewed at the Gordon County Government website.

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