Winder Gas Department Receives National Award for Safety

Who Met: Winder City Council

Where: Winder Community Center

When: Monday, August 1, at 5:30 p.m.

Who was present: Council Members Frank Dunagan, David Maynard, Charlie Eberhart, Ridley Parrish, Sonny Morris and Bob Dixon; Mayor George “Chip” Thompson III; City Clerk Sabrina Wall; City Employee Ambrose Jackson; and City Administrator Donald Toms.

Top Agenda Items:

Winder Mayor “Chip” Thompson presented Winder City Gas Department Manager Mike Jewell with a safety award his department won from the American Public Gas Association (APGA) during Monday’s City Council work session.

The APGA is a Washington, D.C. based non-profit organization which advocates for 700 publicly and community-owned gas departments on behalf of safety and issues which impact local communities.

“The natural gas industry workers must adhere to very strict standards and many hours of training to meet federal regulatory requirements,” Jewell stated to Thompson. “Our department works hard to insure the safety of our workers, customers and citizens. I commend our staff for a job well done.”

Thompson also announced that Jewell was recently elected as a member to the Georgia Municipal Association’s Gas Section Board.

Housing Authority report

Winder Housing Authority Executive Director Michelle Yawn gave the council a progress report on the authority’s programs. Yawn spoke of both financial and procedural improvements the authority made during the 2010 fiscal year.

Financial improvements included the use of 2009 federal stimulus money to replace the roofs at Hardigree, Capital and Oakwood housing properties and a new partnership with the Winder Police Department to procure wireless security cameras for each public housing property. 

Procedural improvements included revised admission standards which require employment for 12 months for applicants to be eligible for preferential status and the creation of a Resident Services Department to promote economic self-sufficiency opportunities to the public housing community.

“We really want public housing to be a revolving door, that’s what it was established for,” Yawn continued. “Over the years, since 1937, it’s turned into what it is today, where it is generational. We are trying to break that cycle.”

Other business:

• The City Gas Department will be conducting a telephone survey concerning their utility services August 22 and 23. 
• Winder Chief of Police Dennis Dorsey read a letter from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation commending his department for the work which led to the arrest of a suspect in a Winder homicide this past weekend. “You should be very proud of the Winder Police Department. Most of the people that work there have never had a case of the magnitude of what happened to Mrs. Lynn,” wrote Jesse Maddox, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Athens GBI office. “It was through sheer determination that brought this case to resolution.”

The Winder City Council will next meet at the on Tuesday, Aug. 2, at 6 p.m.