“It’s not that I’m completely against it; I just don’t see the reason for it,” said Wayne Melton. “At this point I don’t see any positives or negatives, and am just wondering why it’s even an issue.”
Councilwomen Paige Phillips voiced her concerns.
“I don’t see the benefit of doing it, and I think it’s just too much for us to go through,” she said.
Melton voiced what he saw as a potential negative regarding the deeding of land.
“Not saying this would ever happen, but what would happen if for any reason our contract was cancelled with the fire department?” he asked. “We would have some pretty upset constituents in the city if we no longer had fire protection because of something like this.”
Phillips offered more thoughts towards the issue.
“If the fire department can come later and provide us with a true reasoning for why it would be beneficial to deed them the land instead of keeping it as part of the city, then maybe I would be more inclined to consider it,” she said. “But not as it is right now.”
Melton added additional thoughts towards the subject.
“The land technically belongs to the City of Hull, and I don’t believe we should just give away something that belongs to the people,” said Melton. “I don’t see any reason why we should rush a decision on this.”
Mayor Paul Elkins said he preferred not to deed the land.
“I’m trying to look 20 years down the road with this issue, and I feel like it’s best for everyone if we leave the land as it is,” said Mayor Elkins. “So with no decision made, we’ll leave the land to the city and its people, and will only further address this as it’s brought up for consideration again in the future.”
Other Business
In other matters, the staking of pins and surveying of city limits will once again be tabled until a later meeting, as it was discovered that the SPLOST funds of the city could not be used to undertake that type of project. Also, the city council has yet to fill the position once held by Brandon Fortson, and will therefore hold qualifying dates for the November election. Mayor Elkins said qualifying will take place at City Hall Aug. 29 from 9 to 11 a.m., Aug. 30 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. and Aug. 31 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
“And no other offices will be on the ballot besides the position formerly held by Fortson,” said Elkins.
