Fayette

County's new impact fee committee will

concentrate on fees for public safety over the

next few weeks, said planning director Chris

Venice.

The

group has had two organizational meetings,

electing Bob Todd, former member of the Fayette

County Board of Education, its chairman and Doug

Powell its vice chairman last week.

The

committee, which is studying ways that the county

could use impact fees to help pay for new

services and facilities, will now begin meeting

weekly, said Venice.

"They

felt they needed to meet more often than every

other week or so if they were ever going to get

anything accomplished," said Venice. The

group will look into the costs of upcoming

construction of a new jail and judicial complex,

plus fire stations and other facilities that are

needed for public safety, she said.

Discussion

of other needs, such as recreation and road

construction, will come later, she added.

The

next meeting is tomorrow, July 15, at 4 p.m. in

room 212 at the County Administrative Complex.

Impact

fees are charged to developers to help cover the

cost of new services and facilities made

necessary by their developments.

State

laws that allow counties to levy such fees also

require that the county be able to justify each

dollar of impact fees. Developers can be charged

only for the costs directly attributable to their

developments.

Studying

the county's needs and determining how much each

new development adds to the cost of those needs

is the impact fee committee's task.

The

newly elected committee chairman, Todd is a

retired teacher and administrator who continues

to serve on the faculty of Georgia State

University.

Vice

chairman Powell is a retired lieutenant colonel

in the U.S. Army.

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