Fannin Commissioners Meet Tonight at 5:30 with Rec Center Classroom and Flood Repairs on the Table

The Fannin County Board of Commissioners meets tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the Jury Assembly Room on the third floor of the courthouse at 400 W. Main Street in Blue Ridge, the first regular session since floodwater ripped through county roads and shut down two buildings in McCaysville. It is a public meeting. Anyone can walk in.

Two things dominate the county's plate right now: a building project at the Fannin County Recreation Center that families will use every school day, and the cleanup from the early-August storm.

The rec center classroom addition

The county advertised the "Fannin County Rec Center – Phase I Building" project for bids on May 27, with proposal packages due June 26 at 5 p.m. Procurement listings describe it as the construction of an after-school classroom addition at the recreation center, with site work, paving and drainage included in the scope.

Local news reports say commissioners approved a rec center bid in early August, along with an upgrade to the county's emergency radio system. The county has not posted a contract amount or a construction start date.

For parents, the practical question is whether the addition changes how many kids the after-school program can take, and when. That is worth asking tonight, because the room where the answer gets said out loud is the same room the public sits in.

Storm damage is still the bigger job

The Aug. 1–2 storm dropped roughly 6 to 8 inches of rain on Fannin County. In Blue Ridge, a road collapsed with a driver's car on it. Firefighters carried out rescues across the county overnight. In McCaysville, water ran chest-deep in places downtown, the city declared a state of emergency, and the water system took heavy damage.

By Aug. 5, both the McCaysville Police Department building and the post office had been deemed unsafe and closed. Riverwalk businesses, other downtown properties and a number of homes took water. City officials have tied the flooding to drainage problems connected with State Highway 5 construction rather than the Toccoa River coming out of its banks.

Washed-out and undermined county roads are a commission problem, not a city one. Repairs, emergency contracts and any request for state or federal reimbursement all move through this board. Residents with a specific road still in bad shape can report it through the county's public works line at 706-632-5481.

How the meeting schedule works

The board meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at 5:30 p.m., always in the third-floor Jury Assembly Room. Agendas are posted with each meeting date on the county's meetings and events page. Dates occasionally shift, and the county asks anyone making a special trip to call and confirm first.

Meetings are also carried on the county's video feed for people who cannot get downtown by 5:30 on a weeknight. That covers a lot of working parents in August.

The next regular meeting after tonight is Tuesday, Aug. 25, at the same time and place, followed by Sept. 8. If the flood recovery generates emergency spending or a formal disaster declaration request, those are the sessions to watch.

Keep up with Fannin County government coverage on the Blue Ridge Georgia Community Website, and if you make it to tonight's meeting, tell the rest of us what you heard. Join the conversation in our Community Forum.

Read more government and politics stories and follow our ongoing local alerts as flood recovery continues.

Header photo: Thomson200 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)