SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2026 · Issue No. 73 · 12 min read
Monday: a $691,000 parks deal and your tax rate
Plus your voting plans, two wins Friday night and what's next in The Camera Files.
This issue is presented by Amber Kuhn · At Home Property Group |
A Milton resident who has sold more than $80 million in homes. Amber has guided buyers and sellers through more than $80 million in sales since 2018, pairing nearly two decades in corporate talent acquisition with relationship-first real estate. Bolst North Atlanta, top 2% nationally, and a repeat Atlanta Home Magazine All-Star.
404.441.7582 · amberkuhn@athomepg.com Sponsored · Amber Kuhn, At Home Property Group |
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In this issue Monday’s Council meeting. A $691,000-a-year parks contract is on the consent agenda, plus your tax rate. Should big contracts get their own vote? One tap. How you’ll vote. 55 of you answered, and most plan to vote early. And. The $44 million transportation tax on your ballot; what’s next in The Camera Files; two Friday wins; and a Saturday with the Wall of Fame and Carvin’ in Crabapple. |
Top of Mind
the one thing to know this morning
Monday at 6. City Council meets at City Hall. The biggest price tag we found on the agenda, $691,000 a year to maintain the city’s parks, is on the consent agenda, the list the city calls “routine matters” and passes with a single vote, without debate. Unless Council votes to move it, the parks deal passes that way. About 9 in 10 city contracts since late 2021 have gone the same route. Want it discussed? Use the button below to ask Council to move it to the regular agenda, or speak during general public comment, which comes before the consent vote. How the consent agenda works →
Before you click Why the parks deal is worth an email
One email puts your name on the record, even if you can’t be there Monday. |
| Email Council: ask them to discuss it → |
You don’t have to be there The button opens a ready-to-send email to the mayor, all six councilmembers and the city clerk. Add your name and address, and your own reasons if you like. Under city rules (Sec. 2-59), the clerk reads your name, address and position into the record Monday, and your email becomes part of the official record, whether or not you attend. The full text is read aloud too if it’s 300 words or fewer and you’re there, or you show the clerk you can’t be. |
What to watch Monday A $691,000-a-year contract the public hasn’t seen. The parks deal is on the consent agenda, and the contract itself isn’t in the packet; the memo says it’s still “subject to final review and approval by the City Attorney.” It renews itself for up to four more years, and extra staff, equipment and materials are billed on top, with no cap in the memo. Three approvals after the fact. The Crabapple Fest stage and restroom trailers were signed before the Oct. 3 festival, the trailers on Oct. 2. A traffic-signal contract that ran out Sept. 30 is being extended back to Oct. 1. All three are on the consent agenda. One bidder, again. The $228,497 paving contract drew a single bid, and the memo says each of the city’s four earlier tries did too. It’s on the consent agenda as well. A flat rate, a bigger take. The tax rate stays at 4.193 mills, but city operating taxes rise $367,792, about 2 percent, because the tax digest grew. The city’s case for each is below. Every item, graded: Before the Vote. |
New: How Milton works. Most of Council’s decisions pass without a debate. This year’s 20 regular Council agendas, including Monday’s, list 220 items for a vote, and 136 of them, about 6 in 10, sit on the consent agenda. A councilmember who objects to one can move it to the regular agenda, if a majority of Council agrees. Our new plain-English guide covers that, why the City Manager can sign a contract first and ask Council later, how the city buys things and how to speak Monday. Read How Milton works →
The parks contract. Tri Scapes, LLC would maintain Milton’s parks, trails and athletic fields at a base price of $691,000 a year, with seven full-time workers dedicated to Milton. The deal runs one year and then renews itself for up to four more, a year at a time. Extra staff, equipment and materials are “billed separately when authorized,” and the memo sets no cap on those. The contract itself isn’t in the meeting packet, the documents Council gets before the meeting; the memo says it is “subject to final review and approval by the City Attorney.” Four companies sent proposals, and only the top-rated one was interviewed; the packet doesn’t show the scores or name the other three.
Tri Scapes has maintained Milton’s parks “for many years,” the city says, and the city’s checkbook shows $12.58 million paid to Tri Scapes, Inc. and Tri Scapes, LLC from October 2020 through June 2026 for park and roadside upkeep and park construction. The city’s case: a competitive process, a crew dedicated to Milton, standards the city sets, and a staffing model in place of the task-by-task approach it used before.
Approval sought after the fact. Under the city charter, the City Manager can sign contracts up to $50,000 that Council then ratifies, or approves, afterward. Three items ask Council to do that for work already done: the Crabapple Fest stage ($7,250, paid by a sponsor), restroom trailers ($9,049) the City Manager signed for on Oct. 2, the day before the festival, and a six-month extension of the traffic-signal repair contract, at no added cost while the city rebids it, dated back to Oct. 1, the day after the old one ran out.
One bid, again. A $228,497 contract would go to Pavement Technology to treat and preserve city streets. It was the only bidder, and the memo says the city got one bid in each of its four earlier tries, too.
Your tax rate. The city’s operating tax rate stays at 4.193 mills. Each mill means $1 in city tax per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. That’s under the 4.205 “rollback” rate, the rate that would bring in about the same money from existing property as last year, so state law doesn’t require the three extra hearings a tax increase triggers. Because the tax digest grew, operating taxes still bring in $367,792 more than last year, about 2%.
Deerfield. A public hearing on extending, by up to 60 days, the moratorium on new zoning, site-plan and land-disturbance applications in the South Deerfield study area. Council started the 30-day pause Sept. 21. The resolution cites “the acquisition of property within the Study Area.”
The long-range plan. The adoption vote we said was coming this month is on Monday’s agenda, a resolution adopting the five-year update to Milton’s 2040 comprehensive plan, which updates the land use map, policies, trails and the city’s five-year work list. The state requires the update for Milton to keep its Qualified Local Government status. Since January it has been through two public hearings, five advisory committee meetings, an open house and four Council briefings, and the memo lists no direct cost.
And a thank-you. Council will honor retiring Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, the No. 2 leader of the Georgia House, who worked to pass the legislation that led to Milton’s 2006 incorporation and is known as the “Mother of Milton.”
How to weigh in. There’s a general public comment period, and two items get their own public hearing: the Deerfield moratorium and a liquor license for the Stone House Tap’s new owner on Crabapple Road. You can also watch online. Every item, with the packet pages, is on Before the Vote, the guide above.
Reader poll · One tap Should big city contracts like the $691,000-a-year parks deal get their own Council vote? Monday’s parks contract is on the consent agenda, voted on with routine items in one yes-or-no vote.
Tap once and you’ll see how everyone else voted. Results Tuesday. |
The Camera Files
What’s next. Part 3 ran yesterday. Council last voted on Flock, the company behind Milton’s license plate cameras, in February 2022, and the city’s answers to our records requests show no vote since on keeping the record of your car for a year or on sharing Milton’s camera data with a federal drug program. We sent our questions to the city manager and the police chief early Saturday, copying the mayor, Councilmember Carol Cookerly, the city attorney and others, before it ran. Any answer will be added to the story in full. The city owes us more records this week, on Oct. 20, 21 and 22. It paid Flock’s renewal bills in November 2024 and again in November 2025.
You Told Us
Tuesday we asked how you plan to vote this fall. Of the 55 of you who answered, the biggest group, 36, said they’ll vote early, in person. Another 8 said Election Day, 6 said by mail, and 5 aren’t sure yet.
How will you vote this fall? | ||||
Early, in person
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On Election Day
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By mail
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Not sure yet
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55 readers, one tap each. It isn’t a scientific poll, just the readers who tapped. |
Early voting runs through Oct. 30, and absentee ballot applications for the Nov. 3 election are due Friday, Oct. 23.
We also asked for your photos from Thursday’s food truck fest and homecoming parade. None came in this time. Next time, reply with yours.
Your Vote
The transportation sales tax. Early voting is under way, and Fulton County ballots this fall include a renewal of the transportation sales tax, known as TSPLOST III: three-quarters of a cent on each dollar of sales for five years, for transportation projects. The city projects it would bring Milton about $44 million. Council has approved the broad buckets: $15 million for traffic operations and safety, such as corridor and intersection work; $10 million for maintenance and safety, mostly repaving; $10 million for bridges; and $6.5 million for pedestrian and bicycle safety, including streetscapes. Some specific projects would be chosen in 2027 if it passes. Collection would start April 1, 2027, and run into early 2032.
The Scoreboard
every game, both schools, the night it finishes
Friday night | ||||||
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Records: our count. Rankings: MaxPreps. | ||||||
Two home wins. Milton beat Alpharetta 41-12 and is 6-1. Cambridge beat Chattahoochee 49-14 and is back to .500 at 4-4. Friday, Milton plays at Gainesville and Cambridge hosts St. Pius X. Every schedule and score →
The Agenda
public meetings this week and next
After Monday’s Council meeting, four boards meet during the week.
Greenprint. Drop in anytime from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, or 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, in City Hall’s Council Chambers to see and mark up ideas for seven city-owned greenspaces, among them the 106-acre Lakhapani Preserve off Lackey Road, 104.8 acres off Bethany Road and the southern part of Milton City Park and Preserve. There are no presentations; city staff will take questions. Being in the Greenprint doesn’t guarantee a project happens, the city says: each one would still need its own budget and public meetings.
- →Mon, Oct 19 · 6:00 PM: City Council Regular Meeting · City Hall
- →Tue, Oct 20 · 4:30 PM: Development Authority · City Hall
- →Tue, Oct 20 · 5:00 PM: Greenprint Public Open House · City Hall
- →Tue, Oct 20 · 6:00 PM: Board of Zoning Appeals · City Hall
- →Wed, Oct 21 · 6:30 PM: Milton Equestrian Committee · City Hall
- →Thu, Oct 22 · 4:45 PM: Milton Trails Advisory Committee
This Week in Milton
the calendar, day by day
Worth circling. This afternoon at 2, volunteers clean up Providence Park for Rivers Alive, Georgia’s yearly waterway cleanup. Saturday, Oct. 24, is a full one. At 11 a.m., Milton inducts three people into its Wall of Fame at Bell Memorial Park, the eighth class since the wall started in 2019. From 4 to 7 p.m., Carvin’ in Crabapple fills Broadwell Pavilion a week before Halloween: food trucks, crafts, a giant inflatable, an SEC football game and a trunk-or-treat run by the Milton Police Department in the Crabapple Government Center’s parking lot.
Sunday, October 18
- →2:00 PM · Rivers Alive Clean-up at Providence Park · Providence Park (free)
- →3:00 PM · Self-defense class (ages 12 and up; registration required) · Bethwell Community Center
Monday, October 19
- →2:00 PM · Monday Mah Jong: Drop in and Play · Milton Branch Library (free)
Tuesday, October 20
- →1:00 PM · Friends of the Milton Library Tuesday Afternoon Book Sale · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →2:00 PM · Books and Beneficiaries: An Estate Planning Workshop · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →4:30 PM · YA Poetry Club w/ TAB · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →5:00 PM · RPG Alliance: Tales from the Loop (Learn to Play) · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →6:30 PM · History Book Discussion: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough · Milton Branch Library (free)
Wednesday, October 21
- →10:00 AM · Writer’s Support Network: Build Your Writing Skills and Community · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →12:00 PM · Novel Notions Book Club: "The Woman in the Window" by A.J. Finn · Milton Branch Library (free)
Thursday, October 22
- →10:30 AM · Stories for Shorties · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →11:00 AM · Community Crochet Circle · Milton Branch Library (free)
Friday, October 23
- →1:00 PM · Mah Jong Meet Up at Milton · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →6:00 PM · Live Music at Six Bridges · Six Bridges Crabapple (free)
Saturday, October 24
- →10:30 AM · Saturday Morning Math Tutoring · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →11:00 AM · Wall of Fame Induction Ceremony · Bell Memorial Park (free)
- →12:00 PM · RPG Alliance: Teen D&D · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →1:30 PM · RPG Alliance: Dungeons and Dragons (Ages 17+) · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →2:00 PM · Fall Festival w/TAB · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →4:00 PM · Carvin’ in Crabapple · Broadwell Pavilion (free)
- →6:00 PM · Live Music at Six Bridges · Six Bridges Crabapple (free)
See the full Milton calendar → · Got an event? Submit it
Spot something we missed? Just reply. Every correction we have run is on our corrections page.
