The Dawsonville City Council on Monday took the first steps in hiring a city manager.

In a 4-0 vote, the board moved forward with a motion by Councilwoman Angie Smith that approves the position with a salary range of $60,000-90,000 annually depending on experience. The vote also establishes a selection committee to review the hiring process.

The move, according to Smith, is intended to free up Mayor James Grogan to focus more on the growth developing in the city rather than the administrative duties a city manager would typically perform.

"I see it as a win-win," she said after Monday's council meeting. "We're trying to get ahead of the growth."

Grogan said he agrees the city needs a formal manager.

"With the ever changing climate of the business in Dawsonville and the need to try to get ahead of the game, I feel like we need to hire a city manager to help with the day-to-day activities," he said. "It's been increasingly harder to maintain all the projects that we have planned for the future."

Completing projects like the city park set to go in behind Food Lion and the downtown revitalization program are among two of the city's major goals.

"This requires a great deal of time and effort.

The need to turn over some of that management work frees me up to move on to bigger projects," he said. "We've discussed this in the past, but I think now is the time for us to move forward."

Councilman Caleb Phillips said the group has discussed the need for a city manager since January.

"I think now is a good time to get going on this," he said, adding that having a city manager is common practice among towns of Dawsonville's size.

"There are some cities that are even smaller than we are that have city managers."

City Attorney Dana Miles said Dawsonville's charter allows for the council to activate the city manager position.

"The committee should come back to the council with...the job description, here's what we've advertised and here are the candidates," he said. "It obviously would take several months to go through that process."