VALDOSTA —
HAHIRA — The Hahira City Council voted to allow the addition of a Traffic Enforcement Unit to the Hahira Police Department at Thursday night’s regular session council meeting.
The Traffic Enforcement Unit will patrol two miles of Interstate 75 and according to Hahira Police Chief Terry Davis, has nothing to do with making money and everything to do with the safety of Hahira’s citizens.
“It’s not all about revenue, it’s about safety,” said Davis.
Davis has witnessed first hand the unsafe conditions on Interstate 75.
“We went out there just to do a little survey back when we were talking about this,” said Davis. “In one hour, late in the evening time when traffic was slow to medium, we clocked four in one hour going over 100 miles an hour.”
According to Davis, this is extremely unsafe especially to the senior citizens from Hahira that are driving on the highway.
“It’s just not safe,” said Davis.
Councilman Ralph Clendenin and councilwoman Rose Adams both adamantly opposed the Traffic Enforcement Unit citing that it was not Hahira’s responsibility to patrol the highway. In particular, Adams stated it was the function of the Hahira PD to protect the citizens and the local businesses. According to Davis, the Traffic Enforcement Unit will not subtract from Hahira’s protection, in fact, it will add to it.
“We’re going to hire additional officers to do this, we’re not going to take officers from Hahira,” said Davis.
Those newly hired officers will not only be able to patrol the highway, but they will be able to come into the city and assist another officer with an incident if need be.
Davis also stated that the city need not be worried about being labeled a speed trap.
“We’re not even going to start writing them until 88 miles per hour and over,” Davis explained.
According to Davis, the Traffic Unit can be expected to begin patrolling in eight to 12 weeks. The Hahira PD has to be given time to hire new officers and new cars.
Among various agenda and consent items, the council also heard the Hahira Ethics Committee report on the ethics complaint filed against Hahira Mayor Wayne Bullard by complainant Clay Tillman. During the reading by Ethics Committee chair, Patrick Warren, Bullard stepped down and allowed Mayor Pro Tem, Bruce Cain, to assume the role.
On allegation number one, the report stated that the committee first discussed whether a violation occurred regarding the sale and lease of city property.
“No violation of the City Charter was found by a vote of 2 (against) and 1 (for),” the report stated.
According to the report, the committee then discussed whether a violation occurred regarding City of Hahira Ethics Ordinance affecting adversely the confidence of the public in the integrity of the government.
“The committee unanimously found a violation of Section 1-3 based on the appearance of impropriety created when the Mayor allowed a private business to store company assets on city-owned property, without the city council’s knowledge or authorization,” the report stated.
According to the report, the committee then discussed whether a violation occurred regarding City of Hahira Ethics Ordinance when a member of the governing authority shall not use government property of any kind other than officially approved activities.
“No violation of Section 1-5 was found by a vote of 2 (against) and 1 (for),” the report stated.
On allegation number two, the committee decided in a two-to-one majority vote no ethics violations occurred with the rezoning of city-owned property in October 2007. A committee majority deemed the rezoning process was within the procedural standards.
“No violation of the Hahira Ethics Ordinance was found by a vote of 2 (against) and 1 (for),” the report stated.
For allegation number three, the Ethics Committee voted unanimously that there was no conflict of interest in the third complaint accusing Bullard of voting against the Initiation of a Request for Proposal of the Residential Garbage Collection.
“No violation of the Hahira Ethics Ordinance was found by a unanimous vote,” the report stated.
Warren, on behalf of the committee, offered no recommendation to the council.
The following were also discussed and voted on:
• The council unanimously voted to allow the Honeybee Festival to be held October 1-6, 2012.
•A motion concerning changing and / or modifying Hahira's alcohol ordinance died due to lack of response.
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Traffic Unit coming to Hahira
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