A request to change the name of Stewart Circle is just one of the items expected to be voted on during the April 14, 2026, Cave Spring City Council meeting. Hannah Turner, Chief Operating Officer at the Northwest Georgia Housing Authority, has proposed changing the name to Heritage Circle, a name she said would honor the history of the homes that were built on the site in the 1950s. Cave Spring resident Peggy Allgood spoke in opposition to the proposed renaming, saying that Stewart Circle was named in honor of former fire chief Sam Stewart. According to Allgood, Stewart was chief in the 1960s during a time when the department had few resources, but “saved lives.”
“The name has a lot of meaning,” Allgood said. “I would hate to see Sam Stewart’s name erased.”
Ms. Allgood made a compelling case for why the name should remain unchanged and I am grateful she took the time to educate the council about the history of the Stewart Circle name.
Council discussed several other items during the April 7, 2026, work session that are expected to be voted on during the April 14 meeting. Those items include:
- A requisition for $7,305 for the purchase of software, training and a set-up fee for software needed for monitoring existing water meters. Though the city is transitioning to a new system, it is necessary to keep the existing one running until all older meters are phased out.
- A requisition for $7,050 for new water meters and the associated cellular plan and software service plan.
- A key policy to govern the issuance and management of keys. The purpose of the policy is to establish controls over physical keys and facility access in order to safeguard City Hall, public records, assets and personnel.
- A resolution related to the Certified City of Ethics program. The resolution states the governing authority of the City of Cave Spring subscribes to the following ethics principles and pledges to conduct its affairs accordingly:
- Serve others, not ourselves
- Use resources with efficiency and economy
- Treat all people fairly
- Use the power of our position for the well being of our constituents
- Create an environment of honesty, openness and integrity
- A proclamation recognizing Georgia Cities Week. According to the proclamation, Georgia Cities Week offers an important opportunity to convey to all the citizens of Georgia that they can shape and influence government through their civic involvement.
- A proclamation recognizing Arbor Day 2026 in which Chairman Dennis Shoaf will urge citizens to “celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands” and “plant trees to gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future generations.”
Other items discussed during the work session included:
- The proposed event ordinance - the first reading is scheduled for April 14.
- A resolution to adopt a schedule of fees and fines - This will allow the city to review and update the schedule as needed without having to amend ordinances. Going forward, ordinances will reference the schedule of fees and fines instead of including fixed amounts within the ordinance.
- A proposal from Utility Management Services (UMS) - A company representative attended a previous work session and explained UMS will audit the city’s utility bills and attempt to identify savings. If savings are found, the city would be in a four-year contract during which the cost would be 50% of the identified savings. As previously noted, I have concerns about the contract length and the fact we would be paying a third party to do something that we might be able to accomplish internally.
- Local Road Assistance (LRA) funding - The deadline to apply for these funds is June 15, 2026
Interim city manager Gary Burkhalter provided updates on several items:
- Efforts to resolve issues related to a lease of city property are ongoing.
- City staff is working to determine what needs to be done to finish the Local Maintenance Improvement Grant (LMIG) projects. Staff will also be applying for Local Road Assistance (LRA) funding. The deadline to apply for the LRA funds is June 15, 2026.
- The cleanup days will be April 24 and 25. The location has not yet been finalized.
- The curb from Southern Flavor to Stagecoach will be painted yellow to indicate a no parking zone. Signs will be added once approved by the Georgia Department of Transportation.
- The unused GPS trackers have been returned leaving the city with two that are currently in use.
- The city’s account with the tag reader company is settled and we do not owe them any money.
Mr. Burkhalter also reviewed the standing reports. Usually this is done during the regular session. We discussed how this information will be made available to the wider public if not delivered during the regular session. That is yet to be determined, but I would like to see this information posted on the city's website or shared in the regular meeting as opposed to the work session to ensure transparency. Updates included:
- The Downtown Development Authority has three upcoming ribbon cuttings. Details are available on the DDA Facebook page:
- April 19 - Faith Cottage
- April 25 - Platinum Plate Catering and Events
- May 11 - The Cave (highlighting recent improvements)
- The court levied $325 in fines in March and collected $110.
- The Cave Spring Police Department reported 421 total calls. Of those, 375 were not dispatched calls which Chief Randy Lacey explained as including citizen contacts such as keep checks which accounted for 287 out of the 375 non-dispatched calls. Dispatched calls included 10 fight calls, 12 special details, nine traffic stops, two thefts, one burglary, six suspicious vehicles and more.
- The Cave Spring Fire Department had 19 total calls in March for a total of 53 man hours.
- The water department billed for 18.7 million gallons of water in February of 2026 with just over 1 million gallons categorized as “accounted for non-revenue apparent water loss” and 260,000 categorized as “non-revenue real water loss.” The total amount pumped to the system was 23.6 million gallons resulting in a non-revenue water loss rate of 13.36%.
- There were four adjustments covered by leak insurance. The fifth involved sewer and debt charges only. The particulars of that situation were not available during the work session.
- As for the financial report, the city is ahead of schedule in terms of revenue collection according to Mr. Burkhalter.
Council met in executive session to discuss personnel. No action was taken as a result of the executive session.
The next meeting of the Cave Spring City Council will be Tuesday, April 14, 2026 at 6 p.m.
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