Find full potential of Mountain Cove Farms

Staff Photo By Doug StricklandA wooden frame is decorated for a recent wedding at Mountain Cove Farms, which Walker County purchased in 2008 but has yet to see making an annual profit without interfund transfers.
Staff Photo By Doug StricklandA wooden frame is decorated for a recent wedding at Mountain Cove Farms, which Walker County purchased in 2008 but has yet to see making an annual profit without interfund transfers.

No matter which way you slice it, Walker County's purchase of part of Mountain Cove Farms doesn't look good today. It's hard to put enough lipstick on a $1.8 million loss and make it palatable.

Times Free Press reporter Tyler Jett's investigation of the property's finances in Sunday's newspaper does not paint a pretty picture. Without interfund transfers - moving county money from one fund to shore up deficits in another - the property has never made money.

But it's difficult to fault the idea of sole Commissioner Bebe Heiskell's $2 million purchase in 2008 of the beautiful area of Northwest Georgia in the shadow of Lookout and Pigeon mountains.

For one thing, her move prevented the farm in McLemore Cove from the possibility of being bulldozed into several more housing tracts.

For another, it has the possibility of one day becoming the tourist center Heiskell conceives.

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* Cash cow or money pit? Walker County Commissioner Bebe Heiskell betting big on Mountain Cove Farms

It may be that she'll need to forge some agreements with private investors to see that vision through. But she shouldn't be afraid to explore the possibilities.

The current county-run restaurant on the complex, without fund transfers, has lost more than $800,000. Would it make more sense for it to be run privately or handled by another restaurant that would cater its food?

Could the Cove House be privately run as a bed and breakfast or could an additional lodge be built that might earn $300,000 a year, as Heiskell has suggested?

Could a portion of the property be rented for cattle grazing? Might a part of it be given to a land trust for a tax write-off?

Managing a huge piece of property onto which the public is invited is no easy task. Someone has to maintain security of the property. Someone has to manage the events at the farm and make sure the place is cleaned afterward. Someone has to mow the grass and make sure the grounds are kept.

It may be that Mountain Cove Farms is, in fact, too big a proposition for Walker County to maintain. But we hope Heiskell will explore every possibility of the county making a go of the property that is ideal for large community events.

Heiskell understands losing taxpayer money is not a winning formula either for re-election or for county solvency, so we hope she'll move to put the best minds in Walker County together to see how this slice of natural beauty might be best used by its citizens.

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