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Your Views: Hall tax payment change welcome
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I am writing this letter to thank the citizens of Hall County for having voted in favor of requesting the Hall County Commissioners to begin installment billing on property tax rather than one payment usually due close to Christmas.

I also would like to commend Commissioner Steve Gailey for suggesting this issue be put before the people in a referendum.

I felt this issue was very important and Gailey seemed to be the only commissioner that took the time to actually listen to what I had to say, then propose to bring the issue to the voters in the form of a referendum, which passed by a large margin.

It will now be interesting to watch how and when the commissioners are going to set up a program to begin billing twice each year. As you know, 69 out of every 100 voters supported twice-a-year billing, which was, in my opinion, a mandate from the voters and should be followed by the commissioners.
I was sure if this matter was to be put to the voters, it would pass and it did.

Most people would like to pay part of their property tax before December and the Christmas season. Installment billing would allow taxpayers to do just that, as well as giving Hall County operation funds several months earlier than in the past, as noted by Phil Sutton, the assistant county administrator.

Once again, thank you citizens of Hall County and Commissioner Gailey for your assistance in this matter.

W.L. Butterworth
Gainesville

Recycling attempt just creates frustration
My husband and I were very excited to see the advertisement regarding the big recycling event at the Farmer's Market last Saturday. So we loaded up the pickup and headed out.

We had a dehumidifier; multiple cardboard boxes, all nicely flattened; a plastic floor mat that you use under an office chair; some old beach chairs; and a yard blower. We pulled up at the recycle event and were directed to a line, where they took the blower. They told us that was all they would take.

We had seen some cardboard boxes when we pulled in so we drove back around and were able to get rid of the cardboard.

They told us to take the rest of the stuff to the Recycling Center on Chestnut Street. Which we did on Monday morning. Guess what? They didn't take any of it either. They told us to take it to a landfill.

Excuse me? Isn't that the whole point of recycling? To keep things out of a landfill?

Bottom line, the recycle "event" was not an event in our opinion. If they do it again, they should be very specific about what will be accepted.

And, we need a true recycling center available. We don't want to put a dehumidifier, plastic chair mats and beach chairs in a landfill. Anybody have any options out there for people just trying to do the right thing? It should not be this hard.

Coleen McConnell
Gainesville