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Juvenile Center, Liberty School addressed in 2023-24 budget

By ZOË WATKINS - zwatkins@t-g.com
Posted 5/27/23

A town hall was hosted for District 4 residents at Liberty School by commissioners Anita Epperson and Diane Neeley.

Those in attendance, many of whom were Liberty School teachers, expressed …

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Juvenile Center, Liberty School addressed in 2023-24 budget

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A town hall was hosted for District 4 residents at Liberty School by commissioners Anita Epperson and Diane Neeley.

Those in attendance, many of whom were Liberty School teachers, expressed their concerns for delayed additions to the school as well as the county’s spending on a new Juvenile Detention Center.

Suggesting District 4 has long been neglected by the county, Neeley and Epperson asked the audience what they would like to see for District 4.

“In this end of the county, we have not experienced a lot of the growth that other areas of the county have had, but trust me, it’s coming,” said Neeley. “And with that, then we’re going to have safety concerns…We don’t have an ambulance…20 years we’ve been after that.”

“What do you want to see for District 4? What’s most important to you for you here?”

“A need for an ambulance in this area is much stronger than a need for making the delinquents housed more comfortably,” said one resident.

Another resident spoke and said, “It seems to me there’s a lot of money going to other parts of the county…” referring to Learning Way, Community High, and the new Cartwright Elementary. “There doesn’t seem to be much money coming here to the south. We need to share the wealth.”

“I’m not disagreeing. I’m not disagreeing at all,” said Neeley.

She added, “If we’re reading this correctly, you would rather us go for an addition here at Liberty School, rather than looking at juvenile detention or maybe some of the other things being proposed. This is what is good for our district, our people. This is what would make us happy.”

Most in the audience responded with a “yes”; one woman repeated “It’s time,” again and again.

“I wonder if maybe they keep pushing us back because we’re the quiet, patient people. Maybe we should make some noise and quit leaving us out,” said one resident.

With the Liberty addition, the cost is predicted to be around $5 million. For a new juvenile detention center, it will most likely cost another $4 to 5 million.

“In order to do any of these, your property tax is going to have to increase,” said Neeley.

This town hall meeting was hosted the night before the Finance Committee, which met on Tuesday to present a draft of the new 2023-24 budget. According to County Finance Director and County Mayor Chad Graham, no new tax increase is required for the upcoming budget.

Not ‘either-or’

This 2023-24 budget, as presented at the finance meeting Tuesday, also predicts it can cover both a Liberty School addition and the building of a new Juvenile Detention Center.

The Liberty School project would have to come out of School Debt Service. Daniel explains, “On the school side, we’ve been receiving extra sales tax revenue and a lot of this is due to internet sales…We feel like we have enough in there that we can make the payments on the Liberty Wing.” This would be done with a capital outlay note.

For juvenile detention, paying for the project would have to come out of the debt service on the county general side. “What’s happened on the county side is we’ve been collecting interest and interest goes to county debt service. So, this past year I think we had audited interest of maybe $200,000…”

In their bid with banking services, the county tied their interest to the “Fed Rate.” When the fed rate went up this year, they collected enough money—$2.4 million so far—that they can use toward the Juvenile Center, according to Daniel.

“Now I think that’s going to hold through next year,” said Daniel. However, “If the economy tanks, then it’s one-time money.”

Even so, it has at least allowed the county the opportunity to “pull down” what the payment would have to be, according to Graham. 

“That would let us go through without a tax increase and get the budgets all in place, plus address Juvenile Detention and Liberty assuming they stay in budget,” said Graham.