By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Fayette County's new impact fee committee will concentrate on fees for public safety over the next few weeks, said planning director Chris Venice.

The group has had two organizational meetings, electing Bob Todd, former member of the Fayette County Board of Education, its chairman and Doug Powell its vice chairman last week.

The committee, which is studying ways that the county could use impact fees to help pay for new services and facilities, will now begin meeting weekly, said Venice.

“They felt they needed to meet more often than every other week or so if they were ever going to get anything accomplished,” said Venice. The group will look into the costs of upcoming construction of a new jail and judicial complex, plus fire stations and other facilities that are needed for public safety, she said.

Discussion of other needs, such as recreation and road construction, will come later, she added.

The next meeting is tomorrow, July 15, at 4 p.m. in room 212 at the County Administrative Complex.

Impact fees are charged to developers to help cover the cost of new services and facilities made necessary by their developments.

State laws that allow counties to levy such fees also require that the county be able to justify each dollar of impact fees. Developers can be charged only for the costs directly attributable to their developments.

Studying the county's needs and determining how much each new development adds to the cost of those needs is the impact fee committee's task.

The newly elected committee chairman, Todd is a retired teacher and administrator who continues to serve on the faculty of Georgia State University.

Vice chairman Powell is a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army.