Lamar Paris For Commissioner of Union County, Georgia

Lamar Paris ~ Commissioner

Union County, Georgia

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Dedicated to Serving ALL the People
Commissioner Professional Activities

Welcome to my campaign web site. The purpose of this site is to not only provide you with information about me, but about my administration and what we have accomplished in the past eight years and what we hope to accomplish in the next four years. I will also be able to instantly respond to any untrue rumors or statements that might be forthcoming.

Most importantly, I want to ask for your vote and support in the upcoming primary on July 15, 2008 and the general election on November 4th, 2008.

Accomplishments made in Union County for the past eight
years while I have been your Commissioner

The following statements and list of accomplishments and improvements in Union County are impressive. While I am Commissioner, I certainly was not directly responsible for all of the items on the following list. Many people have been involved in making these improvements including employees, volunteers and government agencies that have provided the grants.

My job has been to provide guidance and a little nudge here and there if needed. When you view the list below, you will know that there is no way one person could have been responsible for it all. I am proud to be at the helm of such a mighty and progressive ship as Union County. My goal is to continue to steer her in the right direction. With your help, I am confident that can be accomplished.

Road Dept

When I took office in 2001, I felt the work of the road department was one of the most important areas that needed improvement. It also had the largest budget. I had experience in road construction and we developed a plan. There were many roads throughout the county that had potholes and alligator surfaces that desperately needed repair.

Part of the problem was that the shoulders of the roads had been allowed to build up and the water could not get off the roadways, thus making the bad spots worse. Surface treatment paving done by the county was not being done properly and new roads were already breaking down. The county had several new private development roads that had been accepted as county roads even though they did not meet the guidelines of the county ordinance.

While a new motor grader and fuel system had been purchased by the prior administration, most of the other equipment was in ill repair. We were spending thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours in repairing old surplus and worn out equipment. No one knew for sure what roads were county and what roads were private. There were a couple of unreliable lists to use as guides. Maintenance was often being inadvertently done to private roads.

There were a lot of good employees but no real direction. I appointed a new road superintendent and assistant, and we came up with a plan. Initially I had considered doing away with all surface treatment paving because I had seen how it was not holding up. However, once we sat down and found out some of the problems, we set about to correct them.

The county had purchased a new roller that was too small to be useful. We traded it in and purchased a large vibrator roller. Roads were being paved before they were properly set up. We then replaced several of the older vehicles that the employees drove. We purchased a belt loader to aid in doing shoulder work. We purchased a “pot hole patching” machine to fix many problems throughout the county.

I then directed that the first year we would not pave any new roads, but would put our focus in patching and repairing every paved road in the county. While we did not get them all done in one year, most were completed. This has since saved the county thousands of dollars in future maintenance cost. The past six years we have concentrated on paving new roads, while continuing to keep maintenance as a top priority. We currently have the best road system in North Georgia.

We have been very strict in enforcing new guidelines for road construction and paving. While it has taken most of five years to accomplish, we now have a comprehensive list of what is and is not a county road and they are identified by green (county) street signs and blue (private) street signs.

We have also been very active in identifying safety issues that need addressed on our road system. The first project was increasing site distance on a bad curve on Mt. Pleasant Church Road. The largest project was improving site distance at the curve of Doc Thomas Ridge Rd and US 19/129 (Young Harris Hwy.) East of Blairsville (Arne’s Garage), and another bad curve on Roger Rd. as well as drastically improving the sight distance at the intersection of Young Harris Highway with Windy Hill Rd. and Killian Dr. Most recently, improved sight distance at the intersection of US 129/S and Town Creek School Rd. There have been many more. We have widened two curves on Weaver Rd. and have installed guardrails at many locations.

We have continually and steadily upgraded the road department equipment. My philosophy is that if you will give your employees good equipment to work with, there will be a much greater efficiency and morale in the way they work.
If you give people junk to work with, your product may be junk as well.

The road department employees are hard working, self motivated and the county is lucky to have such a dedicated group of employees.

I have required since being in office that the golf course had to pay its own way without having to put taxpayers dollars into its operation. In 2001, for the first time, the golf course revenues exceeded expenses. This year should have an even larger spread. This can be attributed to several different reasons. First, is the hard work of the dedicated employees. Second, the leadership provided by the director, and third, the support they have been given by the county to make needed improvements. This is a real asset to this county and one we can all be proud of. Last year new golf carts with GPS systems were added which has contributed to increased revenues from outside play. The user fees for all carts were increased enough to pay for this enhancement. A new road access was also built to ease congestion.

Enough cannot be said for the beauty and uniqueness of this park. The staff is constantly making improvements and maintaining the grounds immaculately. The Recreation Board has provided the guidance to not only improve the facilities, but the atmosphere at ball games. With their “no tolerance” policy for bad behavior, the ball games have been returned to the coaches and kids.

New walking trails have been added and for the first time ever, there is a beautiful place to walk your dog. Thanks to the previous Commissioner, a partial grant was obtained in 2000 to build a new linkage trail from Meeks Park to the Senior Center. We then designed and built the new trail and have added to it substantially. You can now walk for 3 & ½ miles on the trail systems.

We have had several state champions in recreation league sports in the past 7 years and numerous district championships. There are over 600 youth participants in all sports. There are also numerous adult league activities at the park. Many major events are held at the park including the Scottish Highland Games, the Butternut Creek Arts Festival and this year for the first time, the Jaycee's Sorghum Festival. A new covered bridge, pier, and gazebo have been built. Next year a new community pavilion will be added to enhance the park.

The long list of youth and adult programs is very impressive and can be accessed from the Meeks Park Web Site www.Butternutcreekgolf.com. New programs are constantly being added. Thanks to the recent overwhelming passage of the SPLOST sales tax, Meeks Park will be purchasing 32 acres adjacent to Meeks Park and hope to also acquire a 22 acre tract from the U.S. Forest Service in the next couple of years for an 8 year and under park. This site is located about a mile down Hwy 515 from Meeks Park. Future plans for this area call for a small water park for the tots, small softball, football and soccer fields and walking trails.

Union County is one of the few non-metro county in North Georgia that has a full time fire department and rescue unit. Three employees are on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The firemen are highly trained and qualified as EMTs and all are NPQ1 certified. They roll on all fire calls, motor vehicle accidents and ambulance calls with serious medical problems. These highly trained individuals along with our outstanding hospital make Union County one of the safest areas in which to live. The firemen are equipped with the latest equipment and technology. They train hard and are supplemented by our volunteer firemen located throughout the county. These volunteers devote hundreds of hours each year to ensure that you remain as safe as possible.

The ambulance service is owned and operated by Union General Hospital. It is one of the finest in the area and has 13 dedicated full time employees who insure that if you have any type of medical emergency, you will be treated with some of the most competent care available anywhere.

Recently purchased five new pumper/tankers for each main volunteer fire station to be paid by SPLOST proceeds in 2009. This should soon reduce the ISO rating & fire insurance rates in parts of the county.

This is a state of the art electronic digital mapping system that may help save your life some day. Union County has long had an inaccurate and totally outdated mapping system for E911 as well the County Appraiser’s office.

This new system was acquired as a result of information I obtained during commissioner training. The difference in our system and most others is that we have very accurate topographic information with 2’ and 5’ contours available.

This system was very expensive and before we purchased it, I developed a plan of how we could maintain it in the future. We took color aerial photographs of the entire county along with the topographic information and property line information. The county is now charging for this information to developers, surveyors and other entities, and already we have collected over $100,000 in fees.

Just recently this mapping system was made available to the public for free viewing at the County GIS office as well as on line. Digital data as well as color photographs of your property may be purchased at the GIS office. You can also go online at www.unioncountymaps.com to view maps.

This system will ultimately be an invaluable tool for all agencies of county government. Accident and criminal data can be stored, medical emergencies categorized, development planning, road designing and inventory, water and sewer management (we are sharing our system with other government agencies for a maintenance fee). It is also a valuable and time saving tool for the County Appraiser's office and appraisal functions.

Union County is among a select few communities in Georgia with this new system. The new E911 equipment upgrade was completed in 2007 with further improvements this year, will make the GIS system will be invaluable for emergency use.

We have a full time E911 operations center. This center provides emergency dispatching for the entire county. As one of the 2005 SPLOST sales tax projects, the entire center was upgraded with new modern furniture and all new electronic and computer enhanced dispatch equipment. This new equipment along with our new GIS mapping software will places our center second to none. This is the nerve center of the county for all emergencies. You should rest easy knowing we have many dedicated employees who do an excellent job for you. Within the next few months, we will be phase 1 and 2 compliant for cell phone identification and location.
This is one of the many ways we are maintaining our great quality of life in the North Georgia mountains

My office is responsible for payroll for the entire county as well as administering all budgets. We also pay most of the bills. When I first took office, I made the decision to personally sign every accounts payable check. There are two reasons. The first is so that I would become acquainted with all the vendors of the county, and the second was so that my staff knew I would be reviewing all payments. This in itself is a pretty big job. Twice a month I sign checks. So far, I have signed approximately 30,000 checks in 7 years and 4 months, often at night or on Saturdays. If I am going to be responsible for the checks, I think they need to be reviewed.

The telephone billing was confusing and difficult to keep up with by the staff. Everyone had their own phone number with no way to transfer a call out of a particular office. I made the decision to install a complete new phone system. While the up front cost was high and the aggravation of changing all numbers in the county was frustrating for many, it has been well worth the effort. The new system has a payback period of about 5 years. We were able to reduce our phone bill significantly and most importantly, you, the public, can now call one number ---706-439-6000--- and be transferred to any office in the county. The billing is simple, and it has been a great enhancement for our office.

County ordinances have been adopted for years through county meetings. If you wanted to find an ordinance, you had to know when it was adopted so you could review that particular meeting minutes. I made the decision to codify (legally combine) our ordinances. Again, it was a tremendous work load for staff, but in the end, we now have all ordinances bound in one book. We have several copies and as an added bonus, all ordinances are on the web and can be accessed from the county web site at www.unioncountyga.gov.

New government regulations as well as software problems necessitated that we purchase new accounting software and computer server for the office. This was another long and drawn-out process, but will now provide the county with up to the minute financial information. Looking after the taxpayer’s money is my primary job.

There have been several other changes that I will list below. If anyone thinks that not much has been accomplished in Union County, have them read this information: