CCLC reports on Oct. meeting
By: Barbara Sublet

The Concerned Citizens of Lincoln County met October 18 at the Lincoln County Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Al Bean, president, opened the meeting. Vice president, Linda Burns, gave the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance.

There was no guest speaker this month due to several interests to the citizens of Lincoln County to be discussed. President Al Bean stated that the CCLC is not a political organization. The organization does not officially back any person who wants to run for an elected office, county, state or federal.

The first subject to be discussed was the Georgia State Tax Reform Bill. The property tax would be excluded and a state-wide tax would be instituted on everything, food, clothing, labor, etc. The pros and cons were discussed.

The pros are, all counties would receive a fair amount to continue the operation within the county. Schools would be funded by the tax. All citizens would be paying the tax as to the amount of money they spend.

The cons are, not good for renter as they would receive no tax break. This tax would affect all medicines and doctor visits. All Georgia counties and cities would be affected. Builders would back away from coming to Georgia. New jobs would not be forthcoming. The state would have total control of dispersing the money.

The Georgia state congress has set up a committee on this tax reform. The committee will meet October 28 at the Ramada Inn in Augusta.

The Lake Thurmond water levels was discussed. One member, Jamie Williams, has written several letters to our 10th District Rep. Paul Brown and also to Gov. Perdue and to federal congress members. She has received positive answers from all she has sent letters to. Members were given addresses of all representatives, federal and state senators and were encouraged to write. The members feel the corps of engineers are dispersing water from the lakes unnecessarily.

A discussion of the water fountain was next on the agenda. President Bean and other citizens of Lincoln County met with officials and were able to settle some of the issues as to location, wording on the plaque and that will be placed at the fountain. The fountain was dedicated October 19th.

A motion was made to address the issue of the eternal flame at the Veteran's Memorial on the courthouse lawn. A committee will look into this as there was an eternal flame years ago.

Welcomed to our meeting were Regan Williams, a representative of our district 10 representative Paul Broun and Nancy Bobbitt, a representative of Senator Isakson. The organization thanked them for their participation in the meeting and welcomed them to come at any time.

A motion was made to adjourn the meeting. The next meeting will be held Nov. 15, 6:30 p.m. at the Lincoln County Public Library. A guest speaker will be present.

The CCLC is an organization for all citizens of Lincoln County. Many topics and problems that concern the citizens are addressed. Feel free to come and join in on the discussion.