SANDY Mc GREW HELPING CANTON THRIVE

In the ten years since Canton City Councilwoman Sandy McGrew was elected and took office she has seen a lot of change. Now, she is looking to the future as she continues to serve the city during her third term in office.

When Sandy was sworn in and took office in January 2014 Mayor Gene Hobgood was at the helm of the city. Sandy remembers the council was faced with some difficult decisions in those early years of her decade of service. Among her first committee assignments was to serve on the Fire Services Committee and to decide on the issue of fire consolidation of the city’s fire department with the county fire service.

“Putting emotions aside and comparing means to save taxpayer money we concluded it best to consolidate fire services with the county,” Sandy explains. She said that as well as saving the taxpayers money, the consolidation was a good decision because it lowered the Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating for residents and the city was able to acquire the Jones Building as part of the negotiations with Cherokee County. Sandy also served on the Sanitation and Sewer Tap Fees committees under Mayor Hobgood’s leadership. The decision to preserve several of the historic buildings in downtown was also on the agenda for the City Council.

“The preservation of the mill offices and old Canton Elementary School took place during my first term, too. Seeing those historic buildings repurposed always makes me smile,” she offers. “We also constructed the ordinance to ban the retail sales of kittens and puppies in pet store environments. We were the first of many cities in Georgia to do this.”

After Bill Grant took office as mayor, Sandy took part in the Sanitation, Charter Revision, Unified Development Code Revision, Gas Station/ Convenience Store Ordinance, and Alcohol Ordinance committees.

“Our charter had some outdated language and redundancies and an overall need for some updating. With one of the changes in the Gas Station Ordinance we sought to make them safer by limiting the signage in the windows,” she recalls.

Each council member is liaison between the council and a board and/or a commission. Sandy served with the Development Review Team and now serves with the Environmental and Sustainability Board.

“As Canton grows it's more important than ever to use sustainable practices where possible and decrease our carbon footprint. The new parking deck has a solar array that supplies the electricity to five EV charging stations and soon the new roof on City Hall will have solar panels, too!”, Sandy explains of the city’s sustainability efforts. “We plan to add a few new picnic tables to parks with solar attached, great for plugging in a laptop or recharging a phone while the kids play. These tables will also have wheelchair accessibility.”

As the city renovates the parks, abilities play equipment will be included so everyone has a chance to play and exercise.

“Etowah River Park has this play equipment now. Helping to bring more awareness to the needs of different kinds of play equipment in our parks and ways to lessen our impact on the environment has been closest to my heart. It's my plan to dig deeper to learn more and build on what's being done now,” she says.

Another of the council’s goals is to make the Etowah River more accessible to the public.

“Since The Mill on Etowah has been renovated and growing, that's become a reality with more and more people enjoying the river adding to our economic development.

When we came here seventeen years ago downtown was on life support,” Sandy offers.

“Changes since then include many fine places to eat, new retail shops, and office space is greatly needed. That means more businesses want to locate here. Everyone knows a thriving downtown means a thriving city. We're thriving now and still on our way up.”