This fire bond is a huge waste of money. The county already has the funding for two stations in hand! Why tax us twice for the same purpose. Please elaborate on that council.

look at this another way. When the city of Canton annexed the properties they started to collect city property tax and did not provided the services back then. where is that money?

look at the fire stations the city has now (down town, Station 16) four fire trucks (3 pumpers / 1 ladder truck), (Marietta Road, Station 11) two fire trucks (1 pumper, 1 ladder truck). they only man two of the six trucks they have now. why new trucks, move the ones they have.

What about station 9 (Highway 140 north of town). This is the first due fire truck for Great Sky and it is a COUNTY fire station.

The best way to provide the service and save money is to combine services with the county.

i agree with you guys on this one. just like jeff&bill we live in the old part of town and already have great fire protection. we are actually halfway between two fire stations. just like jeff&bill we say screw all those newbies in the big subdivisions! we got our fire protection. its not our problem.

Actually, "youngmom" you don't have a clue about what you are talking about. The fire station in town IS in need of updates. The "newbies" (as you call them) already have fire protection. No one said they do not want improvements. We just don't need the improvements at this cost. Firm plans and actual figures need to be in place before something like this can be allowed to pass. The people of Great Sky and Laurel Canyon need to understand that they could already have a new fire station. The funds have already been collected. Furthermore, Mr. Bryan all districts should work together. One more issues that you would try to ram through. We are so excited your time on council is coming to a close.

"mom" - not sure who jeff&bill are, but I think we all agree that we need to improve our fire services, especially by building a station that was promised to Laurel Canyon and Great Sky years ago. This is not the point. The point is how do we get the best fire services at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayers. We do not achieve this with Mr. Huffman's "let's get the money and then figure out how to spend it" approach. The Council can not agree on what the total cost will actually be or how the staffing will be funded. Fact is, the money to build these new stations has already been collected by the County through a previous SPLOST. Just ask Buzz Ahrens. It is sitting there, and if the city collaborated or consolidated with the county, these stations could be built NOW without any additional costs to the taxpayers! But, the Council's over inflated egos will not allow them to even consider this option. Now that the Gang of Five, including one "youngmom", are in danger of loosing this referendum, they have resorted to playing the Wards against each other. The goal should be what is best for ALL citizens of Canton, and the Council should be working overtime to unify the public instead of extending their petty little battles to their constituents. Time for "youngmom" to growup!

actually TOTAL consolidation seems like a very sensible option. its happening in many of the more progressive places in georgia. and didnt some young residents bring up the idea last year? and who was the first to shout them down? and didnt bryan encourage residents to at least listen to the idea? so why not do away with the whole thing including the double taxation? and jeff&bill why dont you guys tell the whole truth? with your plan the seniors will have to pay full costs - a HUGE tax increase for them. engaging in partial truths like you guys are doing is just a LIE. and its so funny to see you guys slamming bryan while engaging in the very debate he made possible by pushing to even have a referendum. this council could have just borrowed the money without a referendum - like cecils boys & girls did.

Well, I for one, am eager to attend the town hall meeting next Monday (March 4) organized by Mr. Huffman and Mr. Rush at the Laurel Canyon Golf Club. I am eager to have these questions addressed and cleared up once and for all. There is so much conflicting information floating around. I am hoping that the meeting will be attended by officials who have the correct information and are willing to answer questions and listen to our citizens.

I cannot answer your questions, Mr. Brown. I can only disperse the information that I have at hand. As news of this Town Hall meeting was in the paper today, I can only assume that all of Canton would be included.

thanks for the compliments guys but it seems that bryan and i might differ on this issue. apparently some of you have inside info since i have not heard where he stands on this. have you or are you just guessing? he wouldnt even answer his cell phone last week. yes, just like jeff&bill i am definitely against it because ive already got mine and jeff&bill already got theirs. you go jeff&bill! laurel canyon, great sky, river green, town mill and all those other newbies can go to the county for all we care - right guys?! why should we pay for fire protection for the new subdivisions? and we sure dont want to pay for all those rich seniors do we? this bond will only cost the seniors like 30 bucks per 100k and they get the staffing free! jeff& bill you guys are brilliant! old town rocks and newbies suck!

Brown’s comments, I can see he is dealing with little insight.
The Mayor indicated a guess of what interest would be on trucks, we can decide at the time of need the best way to finance. We have an interest rate in low 3%. It could be 2 or 3 yrs before we need trucks. We have trucks for 1st station. Sales taxes are well and growing. This takes the amount that we need to lower figure not higher. Brown’s comment about the estimated cost of the stations is unfounded. Wrong again! This work started in 2008. I was on a committee for months on a plan for Canton 2030. It has been published, voted and submitted to the State. We have reduced the cost over million dollars. We have reports, letters that estimates are fare. Canton is going to be glad they have the reservoir. Others would love our problem. The Mayor helped reducing our debt without tax increase. There are plans to refinance the Reservoir debt.
The City let 22 employees go and several firemen years back to hold taxes. Our City continued to grow and better now.
Assumption made about SPLOST with the County and the City. Council do not agree. The County is in the whole $4 in the Tribune last week. Let’s mention the $28m that the County is obligated for the Bobo operation. We think the County is going to build stations for nothing? The County does not offer exemptions. Tax mils go up every year (like Canton should have) to remain revenue natural.
We cannot cut to get improved protection

jeff&bill why you two are so angry at me? i'm on your side sweeties! and sorry i got a little carried away with the newbies thing. theres lots of nice people in the new subdivisions but i do agree with you jeff&bill - they are just not REAL canton. and we don't want to pay for their fire stations. too bad we can't just give them all to the county - fire, police, streets, water all of it and keep our little old timey town to ourselves - i'm with you guys! vote NO to progress - who needs it - not us.

Build Build that seems to be the answer to everything. How about Retrofit Retrofit some of the existing EMPTY buildings that are out there. I'm sure the owners of those would be glad to work out a deal. NO NEW BUILDINGS are needed until some of these are filled. Plus who in their right mind wants MORE TAXES.

Interesting how some of these reps are tied back to some of the construction contractors bidding on various things being built as well. Sure they make sure to not be involved in the voting process/approval but give me a break....... I'm a redneck...........