Walker County is one step closer to voting on a 1-cent special local option sales tax, also known as SPLOST, and a lenghthy list of projects that may be paid for through that tax.
County Sole Commissioner Bebe Heiskell said at her commissioner's meeting last week that she plans to officially present a resolution for the "call for election referendum on the 2013 SPLOST and Bond" at a special called meeting this week. Once the resolution is passed and the election commission passes its own resolution to hold the referendum, it will be official. That means voters in November's election will determine the fate of the potential sales tax through the year 2019, and thus that of the accompanying list of projects.
This resolution has been on Heiskell's meeting agendas for several weeks but she had to wait until all of the cities officially finalized their project lists, she said.
The following is the first of a long list of proposed projects for Walker County and its cities. Check next week's and following editions of Walker Weekly for the rest.
• Walker County unincorporated area: $19,760,000
• Road resurfacing and other road work: $9.1 million
• Sheriff's patrol cars and other equipment and vehicles for law enforcement: $1.9 million
• Bridges, right-of-way acquisition, development and maintenance of vehicular and pedestrian corridors: $250,000
• Emergency services equipment including fire hydrants for south county and radio repeater for 911: $1 million
• Shooting range for Sheriff's Office and public: $30,000
• Ten assault rifles in case of hostage situations at schools or elsewhere, State Patrol bar code and drivers' license readers equipment: $30,000
• Development of Phase II of industrial park, including engineering, design, permitting and mitigation costs: $1.3 million
• Projects at the three libraries in the county, including $300,000 to finish renovations at the LaFayette-Walker Public Library and $600,000 for the Rossville Public Library. If the Rossville Library isn't renovated, the money will fund other library projects, or roads, if the libraries don't need the money.
• Construction or renovation of multipurpose emergency facilities in the communities of Mt. Pleasant ($400,000), Hinkle ($250,000) and Cedar Grove ($1.5 million)
• Recreation facilities such as ball fields, playgrounds and walking tracks in various communities including Chattanooga Valley, Rock Spring, Peavine, Hinkle and Center Post: $1 million
• Water and sewerage improvements including, but not limited to completion of the project in East and West Armuchee: $2 million
• County office equipment and furnishings, including a new accounting system: $100,000