Ware Shoals exploring community youth center options
WARE SHOALS — Officials want something in town for the children.
Before the years-off Katherine Hall restoration project, Ware Shoals’ council is exploring options for a community youth center.
During a called meeting, the town Youth and Community Committee discussed possible locations of a community center, a project council member Valerie Jackson championed while campaigning for council.
Jackson said she’s looked at the bay area of the building attached to Town Hall, which would need serious renovation. Town officials have also considered the defunct Fred’s Pharmacy building on North Greenwood Avenue and Xtravadance building on East Cork Street. Jackson said it would likely cost much more to buy and renovate the Fred’s building than it would to renovate the existing town building.
It would likely cost about $150,000 to buy the Fred’s building, but Jackson said the town has the option of leasing the Xtravadance building’s space for $90,000-$100,000.
The Greenwood County Capital Projects Sales Tax is expected to bring in nearly $3.4 million for the rehabilitation of Katherine Hall, but council member Bryan Ross said that money isn’t expected to be available until 2025. The project won’t be finished until after then, and in the meantime, the committee is interested in pursuing a youth center.
Ross said spending the estimated $120,000-$130,000 to renovate the town’s existing building might be worth it.
“I just think this building needs it anyway,” he said. “We already have it, so why not?”
Council member Ken Boles wondered if the cost of replacing part of the town building’s roof wouldn’t risk inflating the estimated cost, but cautioned against buying a building in town, as it would mean they’d no longer collect property taxes on the purchased building.
“Anywhere we go, we’re going to be putting money into it,” Jackson said. “I’m trying to think about what’s best for the kids.”
The committee decided to explore two options: Leasing the Xtravadance building and seeing how feasible it would be to put a prefab building existing town property near the town’s water tower.
In a called town council meeting afterward, council went behind closed doors to discuss land easement issues with residents. After returning to public session, council voted unanimously to do a request for proposal seeking an engineering firm to review the plan for building a wastewater collection line.
The plan, already approved by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, is part of the county Capital Projects Sales Tax and would spend about $1.5 million to construct a pump station in the Carnell Bridge area and replace an aging sewer line. Mayor Scott Horne said as the project nears, the town wants an engineer to look at it and give a second opinion, to be sure everything is in order.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Jun 2, 2021
By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com