The Fannin County Board of Commissioners took no action on the Whitepath FabTech building after Post Two Commissioner Glenn Patterson requested to add it to the agenda during a meeting Tuesday, November 10, and will not take any action regarding the building for the remainder of the year.
Patterson started the discussion by stating, “We’re not moving forward with this project. What we’re doing is trying to gather information so that we can make a good choice, whether we move forward or not.”
In order to do that, Patterson presented proposals to get drilling and boring and a hazardous material survey done that would cost $11,000.
“It’ll take them about a month to do that, but this is for us to just be able to decide and pass it on to the local library board, which the local library board has to make a decision on it, and then pass it back to us,” Patterson said. “With the time constraints, you know the state has told us that they won’t allow us to just sit on that grant, $3.1 million, that some decisions have to be made, and so that’s what we’re looking at okay, because they can take it back if we don’t make a decision one way or another.”
He described the proposed spending of $11,000 as a “necessary step,” and asked the other members of the board to consider voting to get it done.
Post One Commissioner Earl Johnson asked if the work was for the library, and Patterson explained that it was for the library and for the county to use regarding moving administrative offices into the building.
“I never wanted the library in the building anyway,” Johnson said. “There’s not enough money to build a library. The numbers y’all threw around when we met right here was not going to cover even half the cost of building the library. I haven’t heard anything about the library now in months, because I thought everyone realized there’s not enough money to build a library.
“How can I be interested in building a library, when I know we don’t have the funds to build a library? Even though the state did grant us $1.3 million, but we had to match $600,000. That’s not going to build a library. … There’s not enough funds to build a library to the standards that people on the library board are wanting, so I don’t know why we would spend another $11,000 for the library board when no one has come up with any money yet.”
He further explained that his intended purpose for the building was strictly for administrative offices.
“If we don’t spend the $3 million (SPLOST) dollars on an administration building for the county, then we can’t spend it on anything,” Johnson said.
Patterson responded, “What I’m saying is we’re going to have to do that same type of standard procedure to see if that building is good for an admin building as well. That’s a standard step.”
Johnson then asked if it was fair for the board to make a decision regarding the building with a new post commissioner and new chairman coming on at the end of the year. A sentiment that Helton echoed.
“I’m just looking at getting that preliminary thing so they can have more information, so that we can make a better decision,” Patterson said. “We’re going to have to do it one way or the other.”
Johnson responded, “What if the other two commissioners that occupy these seats don’t even want that building? Then we’re going to waste another $11,000, and I don’t feel like doing that myself.”
Chairman Stan Helton said he still felt the building was “one of the best purchases we could have made to make that mandate that the voters gave us.”
He said, “I don’t know where all of these big numbers are coming from, but you don’t have to do it all in one big bite. You’ve got $3,150,000, if SPLOST continues on you may have more money than that, minus the $1.3 million that was spent out there, to phase in offices. You could pick one or two of the most trafficked offices in administrative function and move them over if money is a concern. Then phase it in over a few years and give another board a chance to say, ‘Well, we want to expand it further or not.’ The fact is, you’ve got the property over there.”
He further explained that he does not intend to “spend another dime” on the property, and that he will allow the incoming administration to move forward as they see fit.