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NEWTON COUNTY — Republican County Commissioner Ronnie Cowan introduced as we speak that he plans to hunt a 3rd four-year time period on the Board of Commissioners in subsequent 12 months’s election. Cowan represents District 5, which covers parts of the Metropolis of Covington and of north and east Newton County.
“My focus once I took workplace seven years in the past was to place the county on agency monetary footing,” he stated. “We’ve got made very significant enhancements in our finances previously seven years, however I actually don’t think about the job executed. It requires fixed scrutiny and detailed consideration to verify we don’t discover ourselves sooner or later the place we have been at the moment.”
Cowan took workplace when the county’s monetary reserves had been dangerously depleted as a result of results of the state and nationwide recession of 2007-2008.
“We had solely $2-$3 million in reserves, and that represented solely half a month of precise bills. We additionally had been working important deficits in strong waste administration, and that system needed to be utterly reformed. Development in tax receipts, constructing permits and industrial funding actually didn’t start to get better till starting in 2015.”
Cowan delivered to the duty at the moment 25 years’ expertise as head of the Human Sources Division on the Metropolis of Covington. He started his profession as a Covington Police officer and holds a regulation diploma from Georgia State College. He was licensed as a mediator and at present practices actual property regulation.
Within the seven years since Cowan got here into workplace, he has pushed vigorously to pay down the county’s debt, together with eliminating the debt incurred in constructing the Administration Constructing.
“In FY 2017 and FY 2018, Newton County was nonetheless having to take out Tax Anticipation Notes (TAN) simply to function and pay the payments till the tax income began to circulate in,” Cowan defined. “Since we targeted on build up our reserves, we have now not needed to take out a TAN in a number of years. The one new debt issued over the past eight years, excluding SPLOST GO bonds, was two Fireplace Fund issuances and the refinancing of a Georgia Environmental Amenities Authority word on behalf of the Strong Waste Administration Authority.”
Earlier than taking workplace, Cowan had been requested to draft a brand new county ordinance specifying duties of the board chairman and district commissioners. Moreover, he had overseen the creation of a brand new Strong Waste Administration Authority that eliminated duty for landfill administration from the five-member board of commissioners. Whereas in workplace, Cowan additionally insisted that every one county ordinances be put into code for the primary time in historical past.
“Due to all that we have now achieved within the final seven years, I’m desirous to sort out the following 4,” stated Cowan. “We will likely be constructing on very significant enhancements within the finances course of and county procedures, giving us a agency basis for a future that’s primed for progress and new challenges.”
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