A proposed $35 million civic arena met with some resistance Tuesday night as a citizens taskforce presented the idea along with other capital projects to Clayton County Commissioners.
The arena is part of a package of capital projects that was presented to the board which will decide early next year which projects to put before Clayton voters in May. If voters approve, the projects would be paid for with a special purpose local option sales tax that would be extended beginning in 2015.
The head of the 2015 Citizens SPLOST committee touted the arena as a way to boost the county’s image and bring in business. “We believe it’s time to move Clayton County forward,” said Demont Davis, who was appointed to the committee by Commission Chairman Jeff Turner and serves as the committee chair. “The benefits (of an arena) far outweigh the risks.”
The sales pitch did not appear to go over well with some commissioners and even members of the citizens SPLOST group.
“The civic center was high up on the list (while) police and other things are at the bottom of the list,” Commissioner Sonna Singleton said. “The community tax base…is still declining. Operational costs are not guaranteed. I’m just a little unsettled about a level one project. Most services I think citizens would be looking for are down at the bottom like public safety. We need to rethink (level one) projects with the uncertain economy in Clayton.”
Keith Parker, who was appointed to the committee by Commissioner Gail Hambrick, agreed. He told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday night residents are more concerned about getting more police and fire personnel as well as sidewalks, bike paths and other infrastructure improvements that would help beautify the county and raise the quality of living. In the past month, Parker said he has talked to about two dozen leaders of homeowners associations and neighborhood watch groups to gauge the types of SPLOST projects they’d like to see. An arena is nowhere on their radar, he said.
Chief Operating Officer Arrelle Anderson said a 2015 SPLOST would raise anywhere from $226.62 million to $272.25 million, depending on whether the county is able to work out Intergovernmental Agreements with its seven cities and if it was collected for five or six years. As it stands, there are about 89 county projects and a total of 204 projects, when city projects are included.
County mayors weighed in saying they’d opt for a six-year SPLOST collection with the money distributed by population but no level 1 or 2 projects like the civic arena or administration building which has also been floated as a possible project.
“If they build those then it must be with county dollars only,” Lovejoy Mayor Bobby Cartwright told The AJC. But Cartwright noted that “today’s administration is budget-strapped.”
Opting for a six-year SPLOST collection, “They’ll get another $80 million. That’s the smartest move.”
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