By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Council considering debit, credit card fees
Action would add 3 percent processing charge
Placeholder Image
Jeff Whitte
Bryan County News
Updated: Jun 4, 2013, 1:20 PM
Published: Jun 4, 2013, 1:23 PM

Richmond Hill could soon start requiring residents to pay a 3 percent processing fee if they use a credit or debit card to pay water and sewer bills.  
At it's last meeting, City Council members unanimously approved the first reading of an amendment to the city revenue’s ordnance that would require the fee. The council is expected to hold a second reading and take final action on the amendment at its meeting at 7:30 tonight.
Two weeks ago, finance director Bob Whitmarsh told council members it cost the city some $30,000 in service charges last year to accept payments using Visa and MasterCard.
“It’s starting to be a little bit of a cost for the city to absorb,” Whitmarsh said.
The fee will be assessed regardless of whether some pays in person or online. Residents who pay with cash, by check or through an automatic bank draft won’t be assessed the fee if it’s approved. Council members will vote on the amendment at their June 4 meeting.
Richmond Hill isn’t the only local government to assess such fees. Bryan County charges a 2.25 percent fee for credit card payments and $2 to pay by debit card, according to its website. The county charges a flat 2.5 percent fee to pay online, with a disclaimer noting all fees go to the credit card vendor.
The city’s amendment also authorizes a $20 fee for bounced checks and notes “the finance director may require coins to be wrapped in authentic bank coin tubes or wrappers if the amounts of such coins equal or exceed,” 50 cents in pennies, $2 in nickels, $5 in dimes or $10 in quarters, the amendment said.


Sign up for our E-Newsletters
Later yall, its been fun
Placeholder Image
Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

Latest Obituaries