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The Red and Black / Finals • Monday, March 19, 1990 • 7
County still hopes for civic center
Former Owners of
Proposed Civic Center Property
Vacant lot (City of Athens)
Flea Marten (Thomas Street
Vacant lot • Moidinf Co )
Chamber of Commerce
Mol sum Thrift and lot
(loef Properties)
Street
VACANT
AUGUSTA
SOLAR
Thomas
Street
PARKING
DECK
Osvle O'Keeffe /The Bed »n<j Black
By JENNIFER RAMPEY
Staff Writer
For more than a year, the Clarke
County Board of Commissioners
has struggled to acquire land for a
$22 million civic center in down
town Athens within the confines of
its budget. Despite this struggle,
construction of the center should
begin on schedule in February
1991 and be completed in August
1992.
County Administrator Russ
Crider said the county has ac
quired property in the Foundry
Street district with great difficulty,
and final price negotiations are
still under way with landowners of
one tract
The county has purchased the
Flea Market property located at
Thomas and Hancock streets, the
Lamp kin property on Thomas
Street adjacent to the Flea Market
and the Chamber of Commerce
property on Thomas Street.
Two other parcels were obtained
in a trade with the city. Final price
negotiations with Freddy Loef and
Bob Elumberg, the owners of a
parcel of land at the comer of
Thomas and Broad streets, are
headed for jury court. All together,
land for the civic center comes to
about five acres.
Commissioner Jewel John said
the county has paid a pretty penny
for the land at Foundry Street.
“The owners of land we need have
upped their prices far more than
what they paid for the land, we feel
there’s been some profiteering.”
Holland agreed and said he
thought the land was worth about
$10 or $12 per square foot.
‘The values demanded by the
property owners, in my opinion,
were not in line with true values,”
he said.
Budget increases
Since negotiations for the land
began, Crider said the county’s
budget for land acquisitions has
been increased. It was revised in
December after the first year of the
special option sales tax to fund the
civic center yielded more than was
expected.
Originally, $1,529 million was
appropriated for land acquisitions,
all of which would come from the
special option sales tax, Crider
said. With one year of base collec
tion data, the county has projected
income from the tax collection for
the two years remaining in the pro
ject
The new land budget is $3,166
million. About $2.5 million of that
has been spent on civic center land,
which has cost about $500,000 per
acre. Crider said if property
owners had gotten all they wanted
for the land, the county would have
spent about $3.5 million.
This figure is about right for the
dirt at Foundry Street, Crider said,
but doesn’t include the cost of any
buildings on the property which
add to the land value.
The county has thus far paid
about $11.48 per square foot for
land in The Foundry Street area.
Crider said he thought the price
the countv paid for the land is
right. T think they ail received a
fair value.”
Land swap disputed
The county initially encountered
difficulty assembling the land
when it made a controversial swap
with the city that left each pointing
a finger at the other. The county’s
part of the swap included the cur
rent regional library building and
two fire stations in exchange for
two tracts at Foundry Street.
Holland said he understood the
county was receiving 3.8 acres,
according to tax maps used in the
transaction.
Please See CIVIC. Page 8
TROJAN
From page 1
from each sheep because only a
certain part of the intestine is the
right size,” he said.
Now because of AIDS, Ac-
uired Immune Deficiency Syn-
rome, which can penetrate the
natural condoms, they’ve
switched to latex ones.
Ted Chasen, head pharmacist
at the Gilbert Health Center,
said the facility sells 30,000 to
40,000 condoms a year.
Last year, the health center
sold about 31,000 condoms,
Chasen said.
The health center is switching
from Sheik Elite at $2 a dozen to
Lifestyle at $1 a dozen, he said.
Sosebee offers his own direc
tions on condom usage: 'Place the
condom on the tip of the penis
and roll it up until you run out of
one or the other.”
C
ki
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