Friday, October 31, 2003

Fairburn approves new municipal judge

By LINDSAY BIANCHI
Special to The Citizen

The lawfirm of Collins and Jones was awarded the Fairburn city contract for Municipal Court Judge Monday night. Of the 18 solicited proposals, only three were received back. Judge Antone L. Allison and Judge Ronald J. Freeman, Sr. withdrew their proposal on September 25 leaving Donald J. Parrot, Sr. the only other contender for the position.

Parrot quoted his monthly fee range as $2,500 - $2,600 as opposed to Collins and Jones who set their fee at $2,400 or $28,000 annually.

Availability also played a deciding role. Parrot said he would be willing to hold court in the evening each week and would be available by phone. Collins and Jones put 5 p.m. as their weekly availability. As for warrants and first appearance hearings, both firms were readily available. Collins and Jones were also available for preliminary hearings and bond hearings. With a little more laid out on the table, the contract went to Collins and Jones who will share the duties of Municipal Court Judge and hold weekly court sessions on Thursday.

In other news, the City Council approved a request for annexation by Curlene Loggins of 5786 Landrum Road. Loggins requested Office-Industrial zoning for the 12.92 acres on the north side of Landrum Road, which Councilman Harvey Melear calls "the lesser of two evils."

Loggins stated in a letter to the city that the recent death of her husband had made taking care of the extra property "too much for me to take."

Barbara Allison of 5965 Landrum Road offered to leave her phone number for the Council after making her argument against commercial development at some length.

"I wanted to let you know that once again I'm here at the City Council and once again opposing commercial development. I've been in the area 15 years and have just seen it go down, down down. I'll be honest with you. The next stop that I feel that I and my family have to make is to go ahead and move out of Fulton County because there won't be anything left."

Allison detailed the growth around her neighborhoodÊ and offered a suggestion. "The only alternative that I can see is if any developments that you're aware of and recommend that you buy up the whole street and if you could turn them into one piece of community development and I would be open to that."

Cheree Johnson of 266 Malone Circle was next and stated, "The City of Fairburn is growing and changing but is this growth and change good or negative? Are citizens of the community being benefited or being harmed?

"We need to revisit what the citizens of the community want in the future of Fairburn. It's important that you the council consider what the citizens want. You have the power to rope us in. The zoning is an important issue. It affects everybody."

After considering the concerns of those present, Melear sympathized with their viewpoint but made it clear that " this piece of property is going to be turned into offices. I hate to say that but that's what's going to happen down the road."

"By making this O/I, we are keeping it limited to fewer cars and traffic than if we turned it into commercial." Melear went on to explain. "One of two things is going to happen. That's going to be either O/I because of it's location or it's going to be commercial." With that said, the council voted unanimously to rezone the land.