COURTHOUSE RENO PRICE SET
Commissioners also approve several zoning requests
As work transforming the Gordon County Courthouse Annex on South Piedmont Street into the new Judicial Building wraps up in March, focus will be be shifted to phase II of the project — a full renovation of the Main Courthouse.
Built in 1961 to replace the iconic 1889 clocktower-adorned building, the current courthouse at 100 S. Wall St., will undergo a full makeover to include additional offices, more spacious entryways and updated courtrooms.
That renovation is expected to take the better part of a year and could begin as early as March, according to county officials.
“This project started out in 2011 with a SPLOST referendum to collect $12 million for both sides of the street,”
County Administrator Jim Ledbetter told commissioners at Tuesday night’s commission meeting. “Those numbers are really not possible anymore, as we’ve agreed for a couple of years now, so with inflation, the gross maximum guaranteed price for the 1961 courthouse project will be $6,347,672 — and that’s with inflation as it exists now.”
Calhoun-based Momon Construction, the firm currently wrapping up work across the street at the
Judicial Building, will also have charge of the Main Courthouse makeover.
“This number does include all the inflationary costs we know, and 30 days beyond so it does give us time to write contracts if the board approves this number we can get contracts written in the next 30 days to lock everything in that we can,” said Momon representative Matt Hibberts.
Ledbetter explained that even with inflationary costs running well above Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax estimates from over a decade ago, the county should be able to cover the renovation with money from its general fund.
“Because of the savings on other projects, interest earned — and
we’ve actually done well over the last few years despite COVID with the help of some of our COVID relief money — we do not anticipate borrowing any money, and we can pay for this with general fund reserves,” Ledbetter said. “We’re getting a heck of a product for our money.”
Commissioners approved the spending with a unanimous 5-0 vote.
Also passed by the board were several zoning requests, including a change for a planned million-square-foot speculative distribution and logistics space on 94 acres as applied for by Industrial VI Enterprises LLC at 5313 Fairmount Highway.
According to Industrial IV Developmental Director William Valentine, the facility is expected to draw around 20 trucks in the morning hours and around 30 in the evening, as well as 110 employee vehicles throughout the day once completed. Access will be limited to Highway 53, even though the property will also back up to the Union Grove Road bypass, per Georgia Department of Transportation restrictions.
The request to rezone from
A-1 agricultural to I-2 heavy industrial passed unanimously after drawing no speakers during public hearing.
Also approved unanimously and without public comment was Ralph Beauchamp’s request to rezone 1.6 acres on Bud Hardy Road from R-1 residential to A-1 agricultural in order to add livestock to an adjoining property.
Another pair of zoning requests by InLight Real Estate were unanimously approved without public comment from A-1 agricultural to I-1 light industrial on Dodd Avenue as part of a larger development.
Finally, a zoning request by OWR LLC to rezone the final parcel of the old Moore farm from A-1 agricultural to I-2 heavy industrial to become part of the CFL family of businesses on Trimble Hollow Road at Highway 41 was tabled again at the request of the company’s legal council Terry Brumlow.
Commissioners also signed off on the recently adopted 10% pay raise for county employees with a unanimous vote, giving the go-ahead for the increase to kick in with this week’s payroll.
A Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant proposal for the paving of just under 19 miles of county roadways was approved by commissioners unanimously.
“This is not our total paving, but this is our LMIG paving to 18.99 miles,” Ledbetter said. “We usually do about 38 to 42 miles a year. This will be a portion of our total mileage.”
The state has allotted an LMIG of $847,610.26 to go along with a 30% local match of $254,282.78, and then the reminder of the mileage will be payed for by $425,256.22 of SPLOST funds designated for paving.
The next meeting of the Gordon County Commission is scheduled for Feb. 1. All meetings are open to the public.