Hart County Abandons Plans to Help Fund Railroad St. Project

Hart County Commissioners say “no” to any further funding of a project to renovate a downtown Hartwell street.

“I make a motion that we kill this, we don’t discuss this anymore, the county walk away from this as of today and be done with this,” Hart County Commission Joey Dorsey said Tuesday.

Dorsey motioned Tuesday evening to remove the County from funding the Railroad St. renovation project now and in the future.

Commissioner Jimmy Carey seconded the motion.

The non-profit group TORCH has been working for four years to turn the largely abandoned Railroad St. into a city park with restaurants, a farmer’s market, artists walk, fitness stations and playground.

Last month, TORCH president Mary Gidley asked the County to contribute $25,000 towards renovating a train platform on Railroad St. to house the Hart County Farmer’s Market, but the request was tabled.

At issue was whether the properties on Railroad St. were private or public properties, and whether the County could legally contribute to a project on private property.

At their regular meeting Tuesday evening, the Commission heard from County Attorney Walter Gordon.

Gordon said the properties on Railroad St are owned privately by the Hartwell Railroad, but leased for 99-years to TORCH.

“The issue is, while that may be an income tax-exempt entity, it’s not a public body, it’s a charitable group,” Gordon explained. “So, neither the owner of the land nor the lessee can make this public land. Now, at some point they could deed it over to the City and would become city public property, but right now it’s not.”

Gordon concluded however, the County could enter into an inter-governmental agreement with the City of Hartwell to help fund the Railroad St. project.

“My position is that you can’t send county forces to work on that (Railroad St. project),” Gordon said. “If you wish to fund this, that’s a whole different story. If you wish to fund this, you can enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Hartwell to provide a certain level of funding in exchange for a certain level of service or performance items that the City would then do.”

But after hearing from Gordon, Commissioner Dorsey said the County would be spending money on project it would not directly benefit from.

Dorsey reminded the board that in 2012 when the Railroad St. was first introduced, TORCH said they would be coming back to the Commission and asking for $300,000 to help with the renovation project.

But given Gordon’s research, Dorsey said the County should spend that money for more pressing projects.

“We don’t have the resources, equipment or the expertise to do what they want us to do,” Dorsey said. “We have other pressing needs out here and we don’t have the money or the time to do this.”

Dorsey also noted that after speaking with a number of vendors who sell at the farmer’s market, they don’t like the new proposed location.

“I’m not going to call it a farmer’s market, it’s more like a gardeners’ market,” Dorsey said. “And everyone I talked to said the don’t even like the platform. They don’t want it.”

Before the vote, the Board called for public comment.

Most who did comment said they did not want their tax dollars to go for a private, city project and said they were happy with the Board’s stance.

But one citizen said the Board should at least support in concept the efforts of some Hart County citizens who are volunteering their time and effort to improve part of the county.

The Commission then voted unanimously to have no further involvement with the Railroad St. renovation project.