CUMMING -- During a quick final meeting of the year, the Cumming City Council approved several items regarding the Veterans War Memorial, a ground lease agreement and the 2017 budget.
All items were approved 5-0 unless otherwise noted.
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Veterans War Memorial
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The council approved an agreement with local veterans groups for improvements and repairs to the city’s Veterans War Memorial in downtown Cumming.
“I think we have a request from the veterans to do some work,” Mayor H. Ford Gravitt said. “I think the request was that to do some repairs, which we can’t use public money on these repairs.”
Gravitt said the groups will raise money and need authorization to meet with sculptor Gregory Johnson.
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Budget approved
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During the meeting, the city council approved the proposed 2017 general fund budget of $13,876,500 and water and sewer budget total of $19,532,000 for a total of more than $33 million for the year, an increase from 2016’s $31.2 million budget.
The city also amended the 2016 budget to balance the expenditures and revenues, as is required by law.
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Bell Research Center
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The Bell Research Center, a nonprofit serving Forsyth County and north Georgia, recently moved from the Cumming Playhouse to a building on Hwy. 9 near the downtown Dairy Queen after receiving a large collection of books and asking the city for ways to prevent fires.
“They had requested that the city would, as a city building, install a fire alarm, of course with as many books as they’ve got they are susceptible to that sort of thing,” Assistant City Attorney Steve Bennett said.
The total cost will be about $2,900.
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Lanier 400 Parkway
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During the meeting, the council approved the bid for the first phase of a Lanier 400 Parkway waterline to Heron Construction Co. for about $392,000.
Eight bids were received for the project.
The construction of the Alliance Academy for Innovation of Cumming-Forsyth County, an alternative college and career high school set to open in 2018, spurred the decision.
“We have our first customer who is the Forsyth County Schools system,” Utilities Director Jon Heard said. “They’ve begun construction on the school, so it is critical we begin the process to install the lines.”