Post-Commissioner Johnson Proposes Funding a Separate County Administrative Building through SPLOST 2016

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At the June 14th Fannin County Board of Commissioners meeting, Commissioners began making their proposals about what should appear on the SPLOST 2016 ballot in November.  SPLOST is the Special Local Option Sales Tax that citizens vote on every six years.  Fannin County uses the current SPLOST to fund projects such as the Fire Station, road paving,  Water Authority, improvement of county infrastructure  and municipal projects in Blue Ridge and McCaysville.  Commissioners must set the SPLOST items by mid-August.

In Commission meetings and out-and-about, Commissioners listen to many ideas about what are  important projects for the SPLOST 2016 ballot.  One project goal Commissioners have chosen to closely listen to and act upon is improving parking downtown, especially the Courthouse area on West Main Street.

On June 14th, Post-Commissioner Earl Johnson floated his solution to parking on West Main Street – move resident services from the Courthouse to a satellite building in Fannin county.  Mr. Johnson sees two options to solving the parking dilemma.  One is spending around $2 million building a parking deck on the soon-to-be-vacant Fire Station #1 property. The second is spending the same sort of money to acquire a building outside of downtown to house county offices like Tax Commissioners, Board of Commissioners, Tax Assessor and Land Development.  Mr. Johnson pointed out that both Union and Gilmer counties have satellite county offices.  Mr. Johnson emphasized his reason for moving the resident services offices and not the library out of the courthouse as “Everybody has to pay taxes.  Nobody has to go to the library.”

During the public comments section of the meeting, several Fannin citizens disagreed with Mr. Johnson.  They stated that everyone pays their taxes online and not in person.

FetchYourNews wanted to find out whose observation best describes the amount of foot traffic at the Courthouse.  So, we visited resident service offices in the Fannin County Courthouse to determine how much foot traffic passes through the offices.  On a whole, the offices couldn’t really say what the average number of visitors per day is because different times of the year see increased traffic.  For instance, the Tax Assessors has more people during assessment notices period.  All offices gave an answer similar to Sandi Davis in the Board of Commissioners office.  When people come to the office, we spend our time and attention providing quality service to people not counting how many people come into the office that day.

One concern that every office expressed was that a significant percentage of visitors to the office are elderly.  The courthouse parking situation makes it difficult for people with limited mobility to take care of business at the courthouse.  And, this age group prefers doing business in-person and not online. As Chuck Cook of the Board of Elections points out, even without parking problems, the Courthouse is difficult to get into.  People have a choice of a flight of steep stairs or a long walkway.  Just making it to the end of the walkway is difficult for people using walkers.

Interestingly, new library supporters have used the same reasons for why the county should move the library out of the courthouse.  At every Commissioners meeting since January, library supporters have said that a new library would solve many parking problems and lack of space inside the Courthouse.  According to Fannin County Library Branch Manager, Claire Barton, the library has over 4000 visits a month.  Like the other county departments in the Courthouse, a large percentage of library visitors are elderly and West Main Street parking conditions hinders their ability to use the library.  Library supporters have even suggested that the county should construct a large building that houses both the library and county government resident services offices.

 

In previous Commission meetings, Mr. Johnson has said that the library needs to move out of the Courthouse to help solve parking problems.  However, Mr. Johnson did not include the library when talking about moving resident services out of the Fannin County Courthouse.

Another SPLOST project that Mr. Johnson suggested is building a truck bay at Animal Control.  Currently, animals are unload from Animal Control trucks in the same area as the kennels.  Animals who are already stressed from being picked up by animal control are further agitated during the intake process by seeing and hearing other barking dogs.

Chairman Bill Simonds suggested dividing the County’s share of SPLOST into categories with 10% going to the Fannin County Water Authority, 10% to capital outlay, 12% to public safety and equipment and the rest going to maintaining roads and bridges. Aside from continuing building Fire Station #1 on Windy Hill Road, Mr. Simonds did not offer specific projects to fund with SPLOST money.

County Clerk Rita Kirby reminded the Commissioners that the County needs a new jail soon.  Current medical quarantine and sick bay space needs renovation.  Also, as the county increases its population, the jail will need more bed space.

During the summer, the Board of Commissioners will continue to hold workshops to discuss what to put on the SPLOST ballot.  They will also meet with Blue Ridge and McCaysville city governments to discuss what infrastructure projects they want on the ballot.

Fannin County Board of Commissioners meets again tonight June 28th. At the beginning of the meeting, Commissions will spend time discussing potential SPLOST 2016 projects.

 

 

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