July 2004 Archived Columns
7/29/2004
It’s continued rainy, off and on, but it has dried out quite a bit. We’ve had the first two really warm days this summer in the past week, and I imagine that trend will continue on days when it doesn’t rain.
The real estate business has been very strong for this time of year. Here in the office, we made Coldwell Banker’s national top ten for the fourth straight month. Normally, we expect to see things slow down in the summer and speed up for fall, which we consider the busy season, but this year the summer has been stronger than I expected.
According to the trout fishing gurus, the fly fishing is still going fairly well, aided by the cooler temperatures brought by all the rain this month. You can find the fly fishing report – recommendations for fishing the Upper and Lower Toccoa and Noontoola Creek - in the window of the Unicoi Outfitters store at the end of the street that runs just south of the train tracks in downtown Blue Ridge.
The latest rumor is that the Statue of Liberty that was removed July 3 from the downtown park is being “renovated.” Apparently, it will not be placed back on the war memorial pedestal in the downtown park. Folks, to be honest, we’re still scratching our heads a little over this one. No one has yet been able to explain to me why the statue created such animosity.
As reported by the News Observer last Friday, Intertrade Corporation, the current operators of the old copper plant in Copperhill, Tennessee has received a notice of violation for dumping DPO in the river, a substance they do not have a permit to use. Because the river flows north, into the Tennessee River system, this sort of thing does not affect Blue Ridge or Fannin County. But it has added some fuel to the controversy about the plant restarting sulphuric acid production. Many folks are asking why, in the light of this latest violation, we should accept the company’s assurances that all is in order at the plant, and that sulphuric acid production can be safely restarted.
The summer Georgia Mountain Fair is still on through this weekend. That’s always a good fun time, and it’s a nice drive over to Hiawassee (about an hour or so from Blue Ridge). Visit www.georgia-mountain-fair.com.
That’s about the news. Hope to see you in town!
July 15, 2004
As those of you who have been up recently know, it’s been very wet lately. The past week or so has brought us a small drying trend, and things don’t seem quite as soggy. However, we’ve still had rain, and yesterday we had a severe storm. I was up in Knoxville at the time – about 4:30 PM – but several people have told me that there was marble-sized hail. One long-time resident told me it was the most severe storm he could remember. Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to have been much wind damage, at least in the areas of the county I’ve visited. Cabin owners might want to check for missing shingles and other minor wind damage items.
With the wet weather, the mushrooms have been going crazy. One of my dogs is a little suspect for eating them, and we’ve been trying to keep them cleaned up around the house – to the tune of about a half a peck every two days. If there’s anyone out there with any interest in mycology, I’ve seen more varieties of mushrooms this summer than ever before.
Last weekend, we had the first ripe blackberries. The 6/18/04 column in the archives has the famous blackberry margarita recipe.
The local news has tended to concern the upcoming primary election and the recent property tax reappraisals. For those of you who missed the story, there has been a fair-sized blowup over reappraisals on the lake. Basically, the tax commissioner is responsible for collecting the taxes and the Board of Assessors is responsible for valuing property. The Board, which is supposed to be an independent commission, essentially ordered the reappraisal of every piece of property on the lake. In the end, many pieces of lake property tripled in assessed value, and the county received about 300 appeals before the deadline.
To real estate professionals, the reappraisal is probably not that surprising, because the last appraisal was in 1997, and it is no secret that property on the lake has gone up in value significantly since then. For retirees on a fixed income, this kind of appraisal is fairly devastating, however firmly it may be based on the principles of area assessment. It seems to them unfair that their property tax should increase just because someone else profited from the sale of their house. A few of the more ambitious local politicians have proposed a “no increase in property tax until you sell you home, and then the next fool pays it” type of law. Whether that’s sound public policy or not, it sure sounds good to people whose assessment has just tripled.
What’s really going on? Well, the state has been on our back to raise our assessments for years, and there apparently are some penalties if we don’t. The other thing is that the same local officials who were delighted to assist certain local businessmen in keeping the Wal-Mart and the Home Depot out of the county profess to be astonished by the fact that our sales tax digest is off about 60%. Whether it’s good or bad for Fannin County to have these stores is a matter of opinion, but a few minutes walking around the parking lot of the Home Depot in Blairsville or the Super Wal-Mart in Ellijay is enough to establish the fact that there are a whole lot of Fannin people shopping in the neighboring counties. The net result is that the school board is starved for money, and there isn’t anywhere to get more money except from property taxes.
And, in the zinger local news story of the year, on July 3, the day before the big celebration, the Blue Ridge city council apparently ordered the replica of the Statue of Liberty that previously stood atop the War Memorial in the downtown park taken down. Nobody will actually admit to ordering it, and it is certain that no vote was taken. But the statue was reportedly transported in the city’s front loader. Other than that, nobody knows nothing.
That’s about the news. Hope to see you in town.
