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Franklin County District 3 candidates Elizabeth Busby and Chris Snider and District 4 candidates Cole Roper and Josh Smith participated in a candidate forum Saturday in Franklin Springs.
By Shane Scoggins
Publisher
FRANKLIN SPRINGS – Industrial and residential growth and how to deal with it were the main questions posed to candidates for Franklin County commissioner at a forum Saturday sponsored by the local Republican Party.
District 3 commission candidates Elizabeth Busby and Chris Snider and District 4 commission contenders Cole Roper and Josh Smith answered questions submitted by an audience that nearly filled the community room at Franklin Springs City Hall.
• District 3 commission candidates.
The candidates were asked their plans to incorporate growth and keep the good companies coming in to help the tax burden on residents.
Busby said she’s done research with the Department of Community Affairs on the issue.
“Franklin County needs more industry,” she said.
The county’s new Unified Development Code (UDC) will provide good information on how the county plans to grow and how to work together as a community.
Busby said she supports seeing growth along I-85 and the cities.
“I have a great concern about losing ag land,” she said.
The county is primed for good growth and needs to pursue a plan and protect it, she said.
Snider said industrial growth has the biggest advantage for off-setting the tax burden and the county should not get too far into housing growth without industrial growth.
The area is primed for industrial growth, he said.
“We’ve just got to make sure we’re getting the right stuff in,” Snider said. “Industrial growth, done right, can help offset that tax burden.”
Keeping industrial growth in the I-85 corridor and housing growth in the municipalities will help lighten the burden on emergency services.
Asked how to entice companies to build locally when the county has a reputation that is not good for industry, Snider said the county should work with the board of education on an industrial program for students.
Industries look for that kind of base to draw employees from, he said.
On managing the growth of subdivisions, Busby said the county needs more housing but “we have to do it wisely.”
Housing should be centered around the cities, she said.
She said Franklin could look at what other area counties are doing about minimum lot sizes.
The county’s new UDC could be a good plan to “keep that growth where we want it and manage it well.”
Snider said that the county needs to study surrounding counties and develop a plan to be proactive on housing.
Housing should be encouraged in areas more suitable for it, such as around the cities, he said.
Asked how to get local governments to work together and not against each other, Busby said a meeting needs to be held that “brings everybody to the table” – including commissioners, board of education, Industrial Building Authority, farmers and small business owners – to develop a plan.
“If we all work together, we can really protect the county and we can really pursue good growth,” she said. “But it really does require everybody working together.”
Snider said it is important for leaders to attend each others’ meetings and collaborate with everyone who has a stake in what is going on in the county.
Each person’s stake may be different, he said.
What commissioners and the school board do are intertwined, he said.
Snider said he would protect agricultural land by keeping development along the I-85 corridor and around the municipalities.
“Leave the rest of the county the way it is,” he said.
Busby said the county’s new UDC will direct growth around the cities, I-85 and Highways 59 and 145.
The key is to make sure that plan is written well, she said.
While the county plans to allow 1/3 acre lots in areas with water and sewer available, the county doesn’t need 1/3-acre lots in the rural areas, she said.
• District 4 commission candidates.
Roper said he would like to look into lowering taxes for senior citizens because farmers, landowners and seniors have been burdened for too long.
The county needs to be picky about the industry it attracts, he said.
“What kind of industry does the county want? I’m not real sure but we need to find out and get it here,” he said.
Roper said the county should work to attract agricultural-supply industries like Kool Farm, which makes cool cells for poultry farms.
Smith said that the key to growth is collaboration between commissioners and the IBA. While they might not always agree, at the end of the day, they are all leaders in the county, he said.
The leadership should find every way possible to listen to citizens, Smith said, by going to the IBA, Young Farmers and other organizations to solicit ideas.
Everyone should come together and do what is best for the county as a whole, he said.
On subdivisions, Smith said housing should stay in the cities for the most part, with industry along I-85, though if Royston or Franklin Springs want to attract an industry, he would be supportive.
Smith said if the county decides it wants to attract a large industry, it must have housing. He said he wants his children to have an opportunity to live here and housing must be available for that too.
Roper said teachers are overworked and underpaid and he would not vote for anything that burdens teachers.
Housing needs to be kept in the cities, he said, and there should not be subdivisions in the county.
Roper said communication is key in everything you do.
Commissioners should sit down with members of the school board, IBA, mayors, farmers and business people in the county to come up with a plan, he said.
Smith said he would call the IBA regularly to meet with commissioners. If he is told no, he will ask why, he said.
If there’s an issue with the school board, then the commissioners need to come together and discuss it.
The answer to bringing people together is to stay on them, he said.
“It’s not personal,” he said. “We’re here to protect the citizens of the county.”
Agriculture is the county’s number one industry and Roper is the third generation of his family to farm.
“You don’t have to worry about me backing the agriculture industry,” he said.
Smith said agriculture should be protected because “by protecting agriculture, we protect Franklin County.”
He said he would hate to see the prediction about Atlanta and Greenville, S.C., meeting in Carnesville by 2050.
Still, Smith said the county needs industry to help pay for schools, ambulances, fire trucks and police cars and to lessen the tax burden.
“I’m bulk sales manager at Smith Farm Supply,” he said. “I’m not going to vote myself out of office.”
The forum was co-sponsored by the Franklin County Farm Bureau.