TIMELINE• Late 2008: Officials with Georgia Northwestern begin discussing a Catoosa County campus• July 2009: Coosa Valley Technical College and Northwestern Technical College merge• December 2009: Land-clearing ceremony• June 2011: Officials discuss new locationsSource: Times Free Press archives
A college planning to build in Catoosa County now is reconsidering the location after discovering protected wetlands would limit access to the campus.
"There are far more positives than negatives, but the negatives are dealbreakers until we can get it worked out," said Craig McDaniel, president of Georgia Northwestern Technical College, the Rome-based college whose officials began talking about a Catoosa County satellite campus in 2008.
In December 2009, a "land clearing" ceremony was held at a site on Cloud Springs Road. The 37-acre campus was expected to cost $13.6 million and to focus on automotive and manufacturing training.
McDaniel said the original surveys and land documents from the county did not show the wetlands, but a new survey this year showed wetlands drainage areas where two main access roads for the college were supposed to go.
"I don't know that it was an oversight on anybody," McDaniel said. "I'm definitely sure it was not intentional. They told us what they thought was the truth."
Discovering the wetlands means the roads still could be built, but steps would have to be taken to control water runoff and other factors, moves that require extra planning time and added expenses.
"This has thrown a little bit of a monkey wrench into the process, but I think, within time, they will still want to locate in the county," Catoosa County Commissioner Jim Cutler said.
In December 2009, County Commissioner Bobby Winters had threatened to request a stop-work order on the project because he said building at the site would affect wetlands drainage and cause flooding upstream. He said the college shouldn't be allowed to build at the site, and he thought the campus wasn't being forced to adhere to the same requirements as other construction projects.
Other commissioners and college officials blasted Winters in January, saying they were aware of the flood plain and had enough room to build around it.
Contacted this week, Winters, who lives near the site, said he's not at all surprised by the new findings because he knows the land well. He said he hopes the college decides to build elsewhere in the county, such as the Benton Place Campus near the Colonnade Center.
"I know there's lots better places in Catoosa County, or one of the cities, for that college," he said. "It will just fit the whole county better."
The main alternative site officials have discussed is the 51-acre Catoosa County industrial park on Alabama Highway and Holcomb Road and the 20-plus acres next to the park, which the county has an option to buy.
Winters said the industrial property and adjacent land is the only site being seriously discussed.
"There's some talk of that, but that's not 100 percent," he said.
Catoosa Commission Chairman Keith Greene said the county had too much invested in the industrial park to give it to the college, but he's committed to working something out.
"We're still looking at options," he said.
McDaniel said he was not sure the industrial property was "suited" for the college. He said he would rather delay the project and get the right site than rush into a location he might regret.
"This is something we will get through, and we will wind up with a campus in Catoosa County," he said.