Friday, March 23, 2001
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Friday, March 23, 2001 |
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SPLOST goes splat By JOHN
THOMPSON
Coweta school officials will have to find another option to build new schools after voters narrowly rejected an extension of the special ourpose local option sales tax Tuesday. The measure failed by 98 votes, 3,221 to 3,123. School board member Rick Melville, who watched the returns come in at the county's administrative complex, said the vote will really hurt one group in the county. "I really feel sorry for the children. That's who this is going to affect the most," he said. Melville couldn't speculate what the school system's next move would be, but did have a theory as to why the vote failed. He said that Bill Griggers, who represented many of the county's senior citizens, had pushed for the vote against the tax when the school board failed to offer seniors any relief on the school portion of their property taxes. "I think it's two totally separate issues," Melville said. The board had planned to use more than $60 million of the projected $94 million for new construction, with the balance used to pay off the system's bonds. In the only other race on Tuesday's ballot, Cindy Brown defeated candidates in the race for clerk of the Superior Court. Brown handily won election with 3,521 votes. Former Clerk Joan Griffies finished second with 2,328 votes and political newcomer Wally Metzger finished a distant third with 478 votes. After the vote, Griffies said she would have liked to win, but was not overly upset with the results. "I'm proud of my accomplishments. But, I'm glad this time it was an honest election." Griffies was alluding to last July's election that she lost to former assistant clerk Mary Jane Thompson. Thompson eventually pleaded guilty to taking funds from the clerk's office and resigned her position.
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