CLEVELAND, Ga. – The White County Board of Commissioners this week approved a new five-year comprehensive plan for the county. During that meeting, Commission Chairman Travis Turner presented a plan for the board to study and possibly implement that highlights capital projects now through 2034.
The plan takes into consideration projects currently underway or soon to be implemented.
One of the future projects is the construction of a new county courthouse. Turner told his fellow commissioners that a new courthouse would be the largest single capital project that the county has ever taken on.
“This is a proposed timeline, a conversation starter,” he said, “It is something that the county will have to prepare for,” Turner said.
He said that sometime later this year, possibly in September, the county will break ground on the new county library and will be looking at issuing some bonds to cover the cost above the state grant funds they receive.
Turner noted that at the existing courthouse, they are running out of room, and in the future, they hope to utilize the current City of Cleveland City Hall building, which is owned by the county, when they move to a new location, and when the new library is finished the current library building will be available to use. This will help to open up some of the space at the current courthouse.
He pointed to the timeline down the road to 2033 for the construction of a new courthouse facility. There are many steps that will need to be taken before we get to that point, but Chairman Turner said the planning needs to start now.
“We have a responsibility to our community and the future board to look at long range, where do we want to go and leave a future board or future boards the options to be prepared for such a monumental project,” commented Turner.
The commissioners have a planning retreat set for March 5, at which time this and other items are expected to be discussed.
