My Content

SPLOST progress in Gordon County
by Sarah Jones
Dec 30, 2010 | 1517 views | 7 7 comments | 6 6 recommendations | email to a friend | print
The Calhoun Times sat down with various city and county officials to get the most recent update for the 2005-2012 Special Project Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) project list. The following is the progress that Gordon County made from the beginning of SPLOST collections through December 2010.

This SPLOST collection ends in December 2012.



Gordon County Government

1. County Judicial Complex, including land, design, utilities, construction and jail equipment for a 300 +/- bed jail with Sheriff offices, Magistrate Court offices, courtroom, public defenders office and other related office space

Budgeted: $25 million

Total spent: $32 million

Status: Completed in Jan. 2009

*A loan was taken out by Gordon County to pay the overage to finish this project. That loan is on track to be paid-off by 2029

2. Courthouse repairs, including electrical, mechanical, plumbing, roof, windows, HVAC, painting, carpeting and plaza repairs.

Budgeted: $1 million

Total spent: approximately $700,000; $300,000 under budget

Status: Nearing Completion in Dec. 2010

3. County roads and bridges including $1.5 million in annual allocations to the Public Works Department for annual paving, resurfacing, and LARP Programs. Gordon County has public employees on staff to pave the roads. The $1.5 million a year pays the employees wages and benefits.

Budgeted: $9,000,000/ $1.5 million a year

Total spent to date: $7.5 million

Status: Ongoing

4. Road projects with GDOT financial assistance including, but not limited to, Plainville Road widening.

Budget: $2.5 million

Status spent: not yet begun

5. New fire station including land, design, utilities, construction and equipment

Budget: $1.5 million

Total: 1,964,067

*The overage was absorbed by the fire reserve in the general fund for Gordon County

Status: Completed Sept. 2007

Total allotted for Gordon County SPLOST projects: $39 million

Total spent to date: $35,164,067
Share This Article |
similar stories

Three Gordon Co. Schools to see principal change | 23 days ago

Gordon natives named to top 10 percent | 6 days ago

New system makes for easier accountability of schools | 10 days ago by STAFF REPORTS

Burn ban lifted until May 31 in Gordon | 7 days ago by ABBEY LENNON

Hail and 40 mph wind expected in Gordon County | 2 days 9 hrs ago

Comments
(7)
Comments-icon Post a Comment
VOTENOTWANTNOT!
|
October 31, 2011
Vote No! To any Future Splost Make Local Schools Boards and Commissioner and Councilmen and women be accountable for the Wasting of money! Here's a web site from past SPLOST read it and think about what you're doing! Http://residentwatchdog.com/index.html You're Taxes are the highest they've ever been and sales taxes are going higher if WE keep renewing and VOTING IN NEW SPLOST! Our only option now is to VOTE NO and Vote Out Current Politicians! They are supposed to do what we want instead of them telling you and myself what and where they are going to BLOW OUR HARD EARNED DOLLARS! Please Vote No! Have You Had A Raise from Work, Probably Not....Give Your Self A Raise Vote No!
Reply
can2
|
January 01, 2011
Note: If you look at the audit please read the documentation associated with the debt to get the correct totals instead of the "to date" totals. Also note that these are capitol lease's instead of loans. In my opinion the only reason for getting a lease instead of a loan is that the county does not have to get the citizens participation and approval for a lease but would have to get the citizens approval for a loan.
Reply
can2
|
January 01, 2011
Anyone can look at the 2010 Gordon County Audit pages 56 (Judicial Complex)& 57 (Sheriff's Offices)located on the Gordon County website and see the long term debt totals for yourself. Either the Gordon County local government or the audit is giving the incorrect cost totals for the Judicial Complex. The difference in the total cost is over 16 million. Maybe the Calhoun Times should do a story on how and why there is such big difference, or any difference for that matter. 16 million is a lot of money.
Reply
calhounweb
|
December 31, 2010
The Calhoun Times reported numbers given them directly from the local governments in Gordon County. They were reported accurately based on county documentation.
Reply
can2
|
December 30, 2010
Calhoun Times, if you are going to report something you might check to make sure your figures are right. Evidently the County Commissioners don't think interest on loans are an expense. The actual cost for the Judicial Complex according to the most recent audit available are:

County loan for Judicial Complex-$22,305,000. add interest $4,187,763 total $26,492,763. County loan for Sheriff's Offices $8,045,000. add interest $3,961,719. total $12,006,719. for a grand total of $38,499,482. Your total is $6,499,482 less the actual total. The 25K was supposed to build the Judicial Complex and a fire dept. The County Commissioners over spent what they originally said the cost would be by $16,499,482. We are paying 4K interest on an 8K loan that is a 30 year loan! Brilliant!
Reply
Postings are not edited and are the responsibility of the author. You agree not to post comments that are abusive, threatening or obscene. Postings may be removed at our discretion.