Score a bulls-eye for Fayette’s hunters who use archery equipment.

Last Thursday, the Fayette County Commission refused to adopt regulations to govern archery hunting in the county. Commissioner Eric Maxwell wanted to limit the area hunters could use on their own property, but the motion failed due to lack of a second.

The commission chambers were packed with hunters who decried the regulation efforts.

“One of my sons killed three deer with his vehicle. I hunt on my property. This is quite restrictive,” he said.

Maxwell suggested the county adopt an ordinance that would forbid shooting a bow 50 yards from a road and 50 yards from a property line.

“It tells what a man can do with his property. It accomplishes nothing, but put more deer on the road,” said ray Schmeck, who has been an outspoken critic of the regulations.

When Maxwell presented the motion, an eerie silence swept over the chambers, as Chairman Jack Smith looked at his fellow commissioners. After a minute, Smith declared the motion dead, and the hunters left the chambers quite happy.

In other business, the County Commission agreed to a $2.6 million update in pay raises for the county’s employees. The pay raise came as a result of a survey done by the Carl Vinson Institute at the University of Georgia. The $47,000 study was the first comprehensive salary study done since 2000, said interim County Administrator Jack Krakeel.

The pay raise will put the county at 100 percent of the market value, and will be phased into place. Executive assistant Carol Chandler said part of the funds will be used from last year’s cost of living adjustment that was not used, until the results of the salary survey were known.

But not all the commissioners were in favor of the measure.

“This is simply an across the board increase. There is no system for pay for performance. This is not reality in the real world,” said Commissioner Peter Pfeifer.

But the other commissioners disagreed and the raise passed by a 4-1 vote.

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