SUMMERVILLE, Ga. -- They say money can't buy happiness, but Chattooga County hopes it can buy Paradise.
County Commissioner Jason Winters says the county is in negotiations to buy Howard Finster's Paradise Gardens.
Mr. Finster, the Chattooga County preacher and bicycle repairman turned internationally acclaimed folk artist, died in 2001, leaving his four-acre property just north of Summerville to his family. In 2005, the nonprofit group Paradise Gardens Park and Museum bought the property and slowly began reclaiming it from weeds, mildew and weather.
"This is an investment. This is not a bridge to nowhere," Mr. Winters said.
The county would use grant funding and private donations to buy the property and then most likely lease it to Paradise Gardens Park and Museum, which now runs the site.
"There are people that want to come here and see this," said Mr. Winters, who hopes visitors bring their wallets with them. Chattooga County consistently ranks as one of the state's poorest counties.
The county recently received a $70,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to put toward buying the property. Mr. Winters said the rest of the purchase price, which has not been agreed on, would be privately raised.
He said buying the property would use "zero county dollars." After buying Paradise Gardens, the county only would have to provide normal maintenance service such as clearing drainage ditches and would not be renovating any of the buildings, he said.
Tommy Littleton, who runs Paradise Gardens Park and Museum, said county ownership probably would help with securing grants. He said such funding has been the gardens' "primary hurdle" because donors said they wanted to be sure their beneficiary is stable and secure before giving.
"That's really what we're trying to do is find the piece that makes it work," Mr. Littleton said.
Mr. Winters drew a comparison between what Chattooga County hopes to do and what Blairsville, Ga., has done by running the homeplace of mountain poet Byron Herbert Reece. Union County has received more than $1 million in grants to preserve the site in addition to the tourism impact on local businesses, he said.
"That community has taken one of their calling cards and turned it into a draw for tourists," Mr. Winters said.
IF YOU GOParadise Gardens Volunteer WorkdayWhat: Restoration, painting and general cleanupWhen: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 24Where: Paradise Gardens, Pennville, Ga.Source: Paradise Gardens Park and Museum
Jordan Poole, field services manager for the Georgia Trust, a statewide historical preservation group, said such an arrangement is common and would ensure protection of Paradise Gardens in addition to the funding benefits.
"That would be a wonderful situation for Paradise Gardens," he said of the possible purchase.
Mr. Poole, whose group named the gardens to its 2010 Places in Peril list, said the purchase could be a win-win situation for the county and the late artist's fans.
"It's got a significance level that not a lot of places have," he said.
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