Whitfield County residents soon may notice progress on the $4.3 million Dalton Community Center.
On Wednesday, Whitfield County signaled it was ready to hand over the 6.3-acre site to the City of Dalton for construction to begin. The county razed the previous center and was clearing the land for the project, according to county spokesman Mitch Talley.
“The county has raised their hand and said they are ready for the contractor to look at the property,” said Dalton City Administrator Ty Ross. “Now the contractor will come in and inspect the property.”
Construction should begin within the month, Mr. Ross said. Contractors are expected to finish the mammoth center within 300 days.
The new facility will dwarf the 44-year-old former community center, which Mr. Ross said was in sore need of an update.
The new community center will have two full-size basketball courts, an indoor walking track, a weight room and a large meeting room, he said. The facility won’t have a swimming pool like its predecessor, but the city operates another community pool a few blocks away, Mr. Ross said.
There also is community office space, and Mr. Talley said there has been interest in placing a library branch in the facility.
The city is paying for the project with about $5.6 million in 20-year bonds as well as $1 million in Community Development Block Grant money.
Dalton Mayor David Pennington has said previously that a majority of the money raised by bond sales and grants will be used for the center, but the rest will go to resurface fields at the Broaddus-Durkan Soccer Complex and to build two artificial turf multipurpose fields at James Brown Park.
The county was involved in the community center project as a part of a special purpose local option sales tax agreement to do in-kind work on the site. Mr. Talley said crews have been working there since September.
They cleared trees and brush, leveled the ground and tore down four houses, he said, and still need to level a parking lot and land for nearby ball fields.
“It’s more than doubling the size,” Mr. Ross said. “It’s a project that was much needed.”
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