The Fannin County Board of Commissioners heard community concerns regarding the county’s Whitepath FabTech property when they met for a town hall meeting Tuesday, May 4.
The property, which was purchased by the last administration using SPLOST funds for the purpose of moving the county’s admin offices out of the courthouse and to provide additional parking, recently underwent hazardous material testing. Asbestos, mold and lead-based paint were discovered.
Former Post Two Commissioner Larry Joe Sosebee was one of the members of the community to address the board, and he told the board that he had not been supportive of the purchase of the property when it was originally presented to him by former-Chairman Stan Helton.
“The gentleman across the road from where my workshop is was the supervisor down there (Whitepath FabTech) for 30 years, and he told me about the asbestos and other chemicals that had been poured out and in the floor of this thing,” Sosebee said. “I relayed it to Mr. Helton, and he didn’t pay a mind to it. The school system turned the building down, as we all know. … That is a pig-in-a-poke, it’s like the paper’s (The News Observer) always put it, and I think your best bet would be to cut your losses, and either sell it Jamie (Hensley, Chairman) or make a parking lot out of it.”
Chief Land Development Officer Marie Woody and Chief Tax Appraiser Dawn Cochran both encouraged the board to not move the administrative offices out of the courthouse because of the adverse effect it could have on not only the offices who have to work with the courts, but the citizens in the county as well.
Woody also discussed the current courthouse, how it was built in 2002 as a result of overcrowding within the old courthouse and the need for a new building that was ADA compliant for citizens.
“We are very proud of the courthouse we have now, and I was told this year that it was paid off, so I’m really proud of that too,” Woody said. “The courthouse is the central location for all citizens to conduct their business, and it would be counterproductive if the citizens had to drive to three different locations, two times, to apply for and receive their building permits. … If our offices were moved to that building on Industrial Boulevard, it would not only be inconvenient to the citizens, but employees would, at times, have to come back to the courthouse for needed records. This is not only time consuming, but it’s time wasted.”
Donna Thompson discussed the remaining costs that would have to be paid, as laid out by the county’s architect for the project, if the county were to keep the Whitepath FabTech property and pointed to the shortfall of SPLOST funds that would make it hard for the county to actually complete the project, and Debi Holcomb pointed to the hazardous materials found at the building and that the county may now have to address those issues before it could be sold if the board desired to do so.
Hensley told those in attendance that he had been “crunching numbers” and attempting to find a solution for the property even before he took office in January; however, he has been unable to find a way that the county moving into the facility would benefit anyone.
“I started looking for options, because I do not feel that there were really options given, even to the citizens of Fannin County,” he said as he described his “Plan G.”
“So, I did start looking for options, and I’ve been talking on a couple of parcels of land trying to negotiate some prices, and obviously, we’ll just put it out there, everything would be contingent on us selling this building out here, but there is a minimal price that I feel we can get with no problems.”
Hensley explained that he has found pieces of property for a library and another for county employee parking near the existing courthouse as a potential solution.
“This facility is 20 years old, and a lot of this equipment is the same age, so there’s a lot of stuff that we need to do under our own roof right here before we look into actually doing something else as far as an admin building goes,” he said. “If Plan G comes to fruition that would take care of your (library) needs, that would take care of our parking needs as far as employee parking, and the county would still be out of debt, and we would be able to work on our facility to get us caught up to the age that has passed us.”