New Fire Station Discussions Continue

The push for a will continue at 6 tonight when the Canton City Council meets for its regular meeting at .

During the , Council member Bob Rush urged the city to move on the additional fire station now before the city loses its Insurance Service Office rating, which is currently a 4. A downgrade would result in higher property insurance rates for homeowners.

All the city needs to do, Rush said, is eliminate a few "frills" from the original design of the station and put the project out to bid. The city has the money to build the new fire station, just not the $500,000 that City Manager Scott Wood said it would take to cover operating cost.

The money to build it would come from SPLOST funds, Rush said.

Before the city moves too fast, Mayor Gene Hobgood suggested the city hire a consultant to evaluate Canton's fire safety needs. He also recommended putting the issue to voters in the form of a March bond referendum.

Also tonight:

• Council will have the second reading of an ordinance intended to tighten the city's gold buying regulations. Chief Jeff Lance said the city has seen an increase in thefts and burglaries because of the rise of gold prices. But dealers are not documenting required information as outlined in state law, he said. That makes it difficult to recover the stolen property.
• Council will hear a report from Council members Amelia Rose, Bob Rush and John Beresford, the three officials . Click for a recap of the committee's first meeting.
• Hobgood will appoint a committee to look into the requests of several neighborhoods that want the city to maintain their private streets. During the Oct. 6 work session, residents from River Green, Canton Heights, Diamond Ridge and a subdivision off Prominence Point Parkway made their wishes known.

Open the PDF on this page for the full agenda of the regular meeting. If you can't attend today's meeting, log on to Canton-Sixes Patch at 6 p.m. for a real-time video feed of the meeting as well as a live, minute-by-minute blog of votes as they come.