Q&A Calhoun City and Gordon County administrators
Covering a variety of timely topics affecting local government, the Calhoun Times recently asked several questions to both Calhoun City Administrator Paul Worley and Gordon County Administrator Jim Ledbetter in our annual local government Heritage Q&A.
Question: How important to the city government is the recent vote to continue the Special Local Option Sales Tax collection?
Worley:
The continuation of the SPLOST is extremely important. Many of the projects I’ve already discussed would not be possible without the SPLOST. We all know our growth rate has increased significantly in the past few years. Infrastructure is critical when plan- ning for community growth and expansion. Much of our SPLOST projects focus around infrastructure such as resources for public safety, public works, transportation, utilities, and recreation. Of course, the education SPLOST is also critical for our local school systems as they plan for community growth. Having this strong element of sales taxes within the general fund operations helps to diversify the revenue streams and helps reduce the reliance on property taxes. Sales taxes are also a great way to capture tourism and travel revenues by those stopping and spending money in our community.
Ledbetter: The SPLOST is very important to the county government, but is more important to the county citizens. The SPLOST helps to fund road maintenance, Public Works equipment, fire trucks, Sheriff’s Office vehicles, and much more. Without the SPLOST, the burden to fund these items would fall to the local property owners. But thankfully with businesses such as Buc-ee’s, Flying J and other points of sale, these SPLOST funds are largely collected from people passing
through our community.
Q: Has the recent house and apartment building boom begun to make a significant enough impact in the local housing shortage?
Worley:
It just depends on who you talk to. Some will say yes, some will say no. Housing has so many challenges right now with high interest rates, high development costs, high inflation, and higher rents just to name a few. A significant amount of new housing stock has been added in the past few years, and a significant amount is already in the pipeline for development. The demand seems to be remaining high not only here, but in many places around our state. Georgia has seen an influx of population growth at the expense of other states. It will be interesting to see if the higher interest rate environment will put a long-lasting damper on new housing or not. It hasn’t slowed much here locally yet. Just for context, Calhoun has issues 282 new residential permits in 2023, 476 in 2022, and 294 in 2021. The spike in 2022 is mainly due to the large housing developments, apartments and townhomes, under construction on Curtis Parkway.
Ledbetter: The recent housing boom has not completely reduced the housing shortage as of this moment. Many of these developments are still in the early construction stages. Also, while many of these developments are using the term affordable housing, that term is subjective to the one looking
to purchase.
Q: Do you see the recent industrial building boom finally leveling off in the area?
Worley:
Yes, it has seemed to level off in the past few months. The industry seems to be shying away from building on speculation. Some of the industrial buildings are having a hard time finding tenants. I believe it will remain this way until much of the existing building square footage is occupied. Some of
the newer projects expressing interest are to accommodate manufacturing with smaller buildings compared to some of the large spec buildings.
Ledbetter: The recent industrial boom does seem to be leveling off, and maybe shifting in focus. While warehousing was once a large focus for this area due to the material shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are beginning to see these developments shift to manufacturing. We hope that these manufacturers bring quality jobs for our citizens.
Q: How is the effort to upgrade the intersection at Dews Pond and Curtis Parkway progressing, as well as the potential joint project for the Lovers Lane corridor?
Worley: The engineering
phase has taken a lot longer than we were promised. I believe due to all the federal government unprecedented funding since COVID, there are an unusually large amount of infrastructure projects occurring at the same time nationwide. We all have to work with the same pot of architects, professional engineers, contractors, etc., so the projects are just taking longer. We do have phase one engineering, Curtis Parkway widening from Dews Pond to Laurel Creek Road, complete and are working on utility relocations plans and right of way acquisition. The engineers hope to have phase two engineering, the roundabout at Curtis Parkway and Dews Pond, completed soon so we can start additional right of way acquisition there as well. A lot of work must be completed before we can start on actual road construction. The utility relocation can be time consuming when you must work with water, sewer, power companies, gas companies, and telecommunication companies. It is my understanding that Gordon County is working with an engineering group looking at the needed improvements for the Lovers Lane Corridor. The City will be working on the west side of the interstate, Curtis Parkway corridor, and the County will be working on the east side of the interstate, Lovers Lane corridor. This approach will have both City and County working simultaneously on multiple road improvement projects.
Ledbetter: The 2018 SPLOST included improvements to the Lovers Lane and Belwood Intersection. Our engineering team has been studying the area and we hope to begin this project as soon as possible. However, there are many steps to these complex projects and we want to make sure that we proceed with an overall plan for not just that one intersection but the entire corridor that includes Belwood Road, Lovers Lane, and Harmony Church Road. In order to address this important corridor in our community 2024 SPLOST funds have also been allocated towards this endeavor.
Q: What was your biggest takeaway from the recent Joint Comprehensive Plan process, now that it’s complete?
Worley: For me the biggest takeaway, and perhaps our biggest challenge, is accomplishing what the community relayed in our community survey, which is preserving our small-town atmosphere. The City took this feedback and tried to incorporate this sentiment in our updated mission statement by providing high quality services, encouraging highquality growth with a goal of maintaining our small-town quality of life. We all know we are strategically located between Atlanta and Chattanooga on I-75. We must work together to plan for quality growth and strive to maintain our small-town atmosphere to the best of our abilities and control.
Ledbetter: The Joint Comprehensive Plan allows the County and all of the surrounding municipalities to work together for the future of our communities. The biggest takeaway is that each of these governing authorities are working together for not just the immediate growth that we are experiencing now, but we are working hand and hand to prepare for even more growth that will impact us all in the years to come. With this cooperative planning, we hope to keep Gordon County as a great place to raise our families, build a career, and enjoy all that life has to offer.