SPLOST to fix courthouse, roads

Every precinct in the county voted in favor of a new Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to pay for courthouse renovations and road and bridge improvements March 15, with 18% of registered voters making it to the polls. The one cent tax will raise $5 million, $2.5 million for renovating the courthouse and $2.5 million to improve roads. The five-year tax will start being applied to all purchases in the county in June and end the same day in June 2016.’We’ll meet with the architect we’ve used so far and he’ll produce the documents showing the proposed renovations. There may be some changes to that. Then we’ll create a schedule of events and bid the project out to interested contractors,’ said county manager Bill Sawyer. ‘When we get through with that we’ll have decided how to finance it ‘“ whether to pay incrementally, borrow funds or use our own funds to finance the project until SPLOST funds come in. We’ll take the lowest acceptable bid and if we’re satisfied with the financial aspects and the building plans, we’ll issue a notice to proceed.’