Hellenga Selected as Toccoa Mayor

Toccoa Vice-Mayor Evan Hellenga will slide over into the mayor’s chair in 2016.

Monday, Toccoa City Commissioners voted unanimously for Hellenga to take over as Mayor for the next 12 months starting on January 1.

Toccoa’s commissioners traditionally rotate the mayor’s seat among themselves on a yearly basis.

Hellenga replaces Terry Carter, who served as Mayor in 2015.

He said he is excited for the opportunity.

“It is just a huge honor,” said Hellenga. “It is something at one time in my life I would have never expected to be. It is such a great, supportive, encouraging staff here and the fellow commissioners have been so supportive to me that I am looking forward to it. Toccoa is moving forward. We are not moving back, we are moving forward.”

Hellenga is in his first term on the Toccoa City Commission.

Meanwhile, commissioners then unanimously voted to select Jeanette Jamieson as Vice-Mayor.

She is also in her first term on the city commission.

Also last night, Judge Bob Struble swore in Commissioners Terry Carter, Gail Fry, and David Austin to new four-year terms in office.

All four were re-elected this year without opposition.

Carter and Fry are each entering their second term in office, while Austin will be starting his fifth term as a Toccoa City Commissioner come January 1.

In other business from Monday’s meeting, city commissioners unanimously voted to move the January 25 city commission meeting to January 26 to avoid a conflict with the Mayor’s Day conference in Georgia.