Hello Ball Ground
We are currently advertising for a new police officer position in our efforts to move the department to a 24/7 service. So far we have 5 applications and are beginning to schedule interviews. If you know anyone in the law enforcement profession who is seeking employment, please give them our contact information.
Thursday evening, October 7th at 7:00 PM is the next meeting for the Christmas Parade Committee. The meeting will be held here at City Hall in the Council Chambers. Your help is desperately needed. Please consider donating your time and talents to this event that brings so much joy to our community.
Sunday Afternoon, October 10th from 2-4 PM there will be a meet and greet in City Park. Each of the candidates for the Ball Ground City Council seats has been invited to attend and set up a table for you to come by and visit. This is not a City event but privately sponsored in the City Park.
Thursday evening, October 14th at 7:00 PM is the next meeting of the Mayor and Council: Quite a few items on the agenda, most are housekeeping type items but we do have several significant issues dealing with the financing and construction of the new police station here on the grounds of City Hall.
Saturday, October 16th from 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM the City of Ball Ground Water Department will partner with the Cherokee County Water and Sewer Authority for a stream bank clean-up. We will meet in the City Hall Parking Lot at 9:00 AM. We will split into teams and focus on trash/litter clean-up along “Ball Ground Creek” starting behind City Hall and running south along Valley Street to Howell Bridge Extension behind the Chevron Station. We’d like to get as many volunteers as possible, so if you have some time, please come out and join us.
Results have been received from the PFAS testing on the City of Ball Ground Water Production Facility. We are again proud to announce that no trace of any of the targeted chemicals was found in our system. Over the years as more and more chemicals make their way into both ground and surface water sources we will need to be ever diligent in monitoring our water source to make certain that none of these chemicals appear in our source water, and if they do, design ways to remove them.
We also received notice this week, that our finance team has once again been recognized by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada with the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. While we have not yet been provided a complete list of current recipients of this award, Ball Ground has traditionally been the smallest City in the State of Georgia to receive this award. We are very appreciative of our Finance Director, Donna England, and her team for their hard work and dedication in repetitively achieving this award.
Our new Pickle Ball Courts are open and ready for play, with one of the old tennis courts permanently converted to pickleball use. Have fun!
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has let us know that they will be expanding their “baiting system” in an effort to control the spread of rabies in a specific raccoon population. The baiting will take place over forest lands in north Georgia both by helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft. When dispersing the bait the aircraft will be flying at an elevation of approximately 500 feet and in a grid pattern. While they have not yet given us precise locations, it is likely that our residents on the northern and eastern boundaries of the City would be most likely to see this type of activity taking place, as the wildlife management area and forestry lands will be the most likely targets. Baiting is scheduled over the next two months. So if you see some unusual aircraft activity this could be the reason.
Stay dry, Ball Ground, and take good care.
Eric
