State eyes Catoosa County property for forestry office

The Georgia Forestry Commission is looking to purchase 4 acres in Catoosa County to build a replacement for its station in Whitfield County.

If the sale is approved by Catoosa commissioners and state entities, the move will enable rangers to respond faster to wildfires in Catoosa, forestry officials say.

Authorities from the Whitfield County Forestry Office have been searching for a new location for a little more than a year. Built in the early 1980s, the current facility, which serves both Whitfield and Catoosa counties, has begun to fall victim to insect and water damage, said Seth Pierce, chief ranger for the district.

This would be the first time a forestry station has operated in Catoosa since its office consolidated with Whitfield’s in 2009 due to budget shortfalls.

The proposed new site on Bandy Road straddles the CatoosaWhitfield line, which Pierce said would allow rangers to serve the counties more equally.

Right now, with the current office located on the far east side of Whitfield County, it may take rangers up to an hour to respond to a wildland fire in some parts of Catoosa, Pierce explained.

“And that’s not including the time it takes them to get from their house to the office, get their stuff together and that type of thing,” he added. “A lot of times, you could be looking at a two-hour response time for some places in Catoosa County.”

Rangers within the district are hoping the move will shave at least 30 minutes from that response time, though the relocation inevitably will mean longer response times for some areas in Whitfield, Pierce noted.

“We feel like that will put us more centrally located to serve both counties as best we can,” he said.

Catoosa County commissioners voted last week to authorize the sale of up to 4 acres, but the county still will need to establish a price and enter into a contract with the state before forestry officials can close on the property, said County Attorney Chad Young.

“This would just authorize the staff to move forward with the process,” Young told commissioners during their June 19 meeting.

Authorization also will need to be given by the Georgia Forestry Commission’s board and the State Properties Commission in Atlanta before the sale can be finalized, Pierce added. He estimated the entire process would take a minimum of six months, with another year and a half after approval anticipated for construction.

“It’s a lengthy process any time the state tries to buy property, so this is the initial phase,” Pierce said. “[There’s] a lot of red tape and a lot of back and forth, but hopefully we’ll get there.”