With every shovel full of information that is dug up on Fannin County’s plans for the old Whitepath Fab Tech building, the financial hole gets deeper for taxpayers.
And each new bit of information discounts previous information in some way.
The latest examples came at the joint meeting of the Fannin County Board of Commissioners and Fannin County Library Board last week.
From that meeting, it was learned:
•Local library board members are not happy with having been kept in the dark about the plan until now, and want more information;
•The regional library board can still vote to stop the idea of accepting a grant that would be critical to a library relocation. Their members have been kept in the dark, too;
•A “preliminary walk-through” has put the cost of renovating the building at $5,089,800. No renovation cost had previously been mentioned, although one was obviously available;
•The renovation estimate does not include design, permitting, furnishings, fixtures and equipment, or possible environmental issues. The cost is destined to skyrocket;
•Despite such an in-depth, walk-through estimate, the architect did not have a square footage estimate for the library; and,
•One commissioner was crystal clear when he said there is no way the county can afford to fund a stand-alone library under current state standards, a move that would seemingly be a requirement for the $1 million-plus state grant.
Every time more information is revealed about the Whitepath building, Fannin County taxpayers get the message the price tag is increasing. And it is those taxpayers who will ultimately pay a huge chunk of any bill.
There should have been much more public discussion and county planning put into the purchase of the building before that purchase took place. Instead, it’s obvious the Post commissioners were even kept in the dark, at least to a large degree, by Commission Chairman Stan Helton.
At this point, there has not been public discussion about what administrative offices would move, and separating some functions in the courthouse – such as tax assessors, tax commissioner and clerk of courts – would actually cost taxpayers added dollars and headaches.
Fannin County is now the proud owner of the ultimate pig-in-a-poke.