Land For New Fire Station to Cost almost $500K

BLUE RIDGE, GA — Although there wasn’t a lot that happened at the Fannin Board of Commissioners meeting on February 24th there were a couple of agenda items that were note worthy.Commission Chair Bill Simmonds spoke to appoint Sonya Smith to continue serving on the tax assessors board, but Post 2 Commissioner Larry Joe Sosebee commented to say that he believed it needed to be someone else.

“I believe Sonya has done a great job. This is nothing personal, it’s strictly business…I’ve heard over and over that people shouldn’t be serving on multiple boards and I believe it should be someone else,”

said Sosebee.

Sosebee then made a motion to appoint Janie Bearden.

With his pick already on the board (Nathan Henson), Post 1 Commissioner Earl Johnson seconded the motion to appoint Bearden.

“I think we ought to be together on things like this so I’ll second that motion,”

said Johnson.

Bearden will start her 3 year term beginning in March and will end in 2018.

Before the meeting was over the board went in to executive session to discuss “real-estate” matters.

When the board emerged Simonds announced that the county would be purchasing a 3.3-acre tract of land on Windy Ridge road in Blue Ridge (close to the hwy 515 overpass) for the amount of $485,000 to build a new fire station one for the county.

“This is something we have been talking about for a while and feel like we really need a new fire station 1,”

said Simonds.

“Anyone who goes by our old fire station now can tell we need a new one. It’s in bad shape,”

chimed Johnson.

The new fire station would also house the 911 dispatch center.

As of now there are no set in stone plans for the old fire station downtown, but the board did say that a parking deck may be a possibility.

Stay tuned to FYN for more information as it is released.