GDOT: School board agrees to fight state over safety
Fannin County school board members made the decision to stand their ground for the safety of children, teachers and parents at West Fannin Elementary School (WFES) when they voted to table an offer from the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT).
The GDOT plan to purchase land at WFES was presented to board members in their regular meeting Thursday, August 8.
Darren Danner presented the agreement that he said the school system and GDOT had started working on six years ago.
GDOT wants land on the West Fannin side of State Route 5 for right of way in connection with the highway improvement project from Blue Ridge to McCaysville. That would mean some changes to the entrance to the school.
Danner, the school system’s chief operations officer, said the changes would involve, “the same entrance, twisted a little way.”
He said school officials have been going back and forth with GDOT for almost two years and had asked them to redraw the entrance. That request “fell on deaf ears,” he said.
GDOT is offering $118,500 for the right of way it wants.
Danner said that local school officials have been warned by other counties that “if we keep fighting it, they’re just going to imminent domain it,” which would mean suing the school system, taking the land, and giving whatever GDOT wants.
He said GDOT has agreed to keep the entrance to the school open during construction while they had originally planned to shut it down.
When school board members began discussion of the GDOT ideas, numerous concerns were echoed.
School Superintendent Shannon Dillard said she had argued against GDOT’s proposal from the time she saw the offer and GDOT’s plan. “I’ve been fighting it since I’ve been here,” she said.
Board member Terry Bramlett began the board’s discussion saying, “The bottom line, are we going to be able to get our buses and our teachers and our parents into and out of that facility safely?”
School board attorney Lynn Doss warned that her belief is the concessions already made by GDOT “are the best we’re going to get.” She said the school could only argue what the property is worth, but not whether or not GDOT can take it.
School board member Chad Galloway warned the system would “lose all of our leverage if we just go ahead and give in.”
He said the money is likely just “a drop in the bucket” if the entrance to the school has to be moved once the highway work is complete.
Board member Lewis DeWeese said GDOT’s priorities “are entirely out of place. It’s just unthinkable to do our kids that way.”
DeWeese said the board should, “Stop it until we can run free course to talk to everyone.”
The vote to table GDOT’s proposal was unanimous.