Fannin Commissioners purchase property behind the jail

BLUE RIDGE, Ga – Following an hour-long executive session, Fannin Commissioners made a motion to purchase two parcels of property behind the jail.

The parcels are known as the Queen property and the Old Sarrell property and will be used for parking and administrative needs. It will be used for county employee parking.

The county is paying $615,000 and will receive a $30,000 rebate, bringing the total cost down to $575,000. SPLOST funds were used for the purchase.

Chairman Jamie Hensley’s been working on finding usable land for the county to help alleviate the parking problem for a few months now.

“It’s also part of that step to make other things happen like we did talk about in that [public hearing],” Hensley stated.

Initially, the purchase of the Whitepath building, by a previous board, was meant to help with parking and administrative purposes, but public sentiment has been largely against that plan.

“Our SPLOST we’re putting it to good use to solve problems. We just want to keep an open door so the taxpayers and community know what we’re doing. We didn’t buy a building or anything, but we are going to solve that problem too,” Post One Johnny Scearce remarked.

Also, after the executive session, the commissioners approved the advertisement of the 2021 millage rate for public hearings. Hensley anticipated the millage rate will remain the same from 2020.

FYN will bring more information about the property purchase once it becomes available.