Special election petition certified

Tuesday, July 30 appears to be the day that voters inside the Corinth-Shiloh Volunteer Fire District will be asked to decide whether they will accept additional property taxes.  Oconee County Council last night passed a resolution that certifies a petition of 804 signatures to direct the elections office to schedule the special election to decide the question.  The resolution passed 4 to 1, with a majority of the county fathers of the opinion that it’s a matter deserving to be decided by the voters there.  As Councilman John Elliott remarked, this will be a vote taken only in Corinth-Shiloh and, if approved, would impact only the property tax bills of the voters in that district.  However, Julian Davis, the councilman who cast the no vote, raised alarm for the potential of what could be a whopping increase in Corinth-Shiloh residents’ tax bills.  This after, Davis learned that potentially there could be up to 25 additional tax mills a year.  Davis said while Corinth-Shiloh contains many homes with assessed values of hundreds of thousands of dollars, there are residents there whose incomes allow them to only skip by.  Corinth-Shiloh’s volunteer chief, Kevin Christenbury, told council the district would be modeled after the Keowee Fire Special Tax District based at Keowee Key and would allow his station to employ several full-time fire fighters to provide 24/7 coverage in a fast-growing section of the county.  A commission of five Corinth-Shiloh residents would be formed to propose the millage. Council Chairman Matthew Durham conceded his colleague, Davis, made good points last night, but said he’ll vote to certify the petition as the circulators have met the requirements of the law governing special tax district elections.  All residents of Corinth-Shiloh are invited to attend one or all of a series of three information meetings that’ll start Tuesday of next week.