Citizens Voice Concern About Bond Sales For Presbyterian Homes

Citizens who spoke at the hearing last Thursday regarding the county’s plans to issue $155 million in bonds for Presbyterian Village Athens raised two concerns.

Some said they felt the bonds represented a risk to the county.

Some questioned why the county was issuing the bonds for Westminster Presbyterian Homes Inc. of Quitman, a nonprofit organization that is building Presbyterian Village Athens on U.S. 441 north of Hog Mountain Road.

County Attorney Daniel Haygood addressed the first of the concerns even before the citizens spoke, saying that a Superior Court Judge will hold a hearing on the bonds to make sure there is no risk to the county before the bonds are sold.

Haygood, acting as hearing officer on Thursday, encouraged speakers to raise whatever concerns they had regardless of what he had just said and returned to the issue of risk, as did bond counsel Jerry Peterson, representing Presbyterian Homes, at the end of the hearing.

Neither Haygood nor anyone else addressed in specific terms why the Oconee County Industrial Development Authority wants to issue bonds for Westminster Presbyterian Homes Inc.

For more on the story and a video of the hearing, go to Oconee County Observations.

Pictured: County Attorney Daniel Haygood.