City Moves Forward With Plans For Alewine Park

Toccoa City Commissioners make a determination on what to do with Alewine Park moving forward.

On Monday, the city commission discussed the park and the current lease agreement for the park.

Right now, the North Georgia Soccer Association, also known as the Rapids Futbol Club, leases the park to use for its soccer programs that serve multiple counties, including Stephens County.

That lease was the topic of a city commission work session last month when officials with the soccer association told commissioners there were problems with the bathroom building that were caused by a major leak that the soccer group could not afford to fix after the commission questioned the soccer association’s upkeep of the park as called for by the lease.

Toccoa City Manager Billy Morse said the current lease would automatically renew unless commissioners notified the soccer association by the end of this month.

City Commissioner Gail Fry said the city is willing to enter into a new, one-year lease, but wants the soccer association to fix the things at the park that it is responsible for before that new lease is entered into.

“They need to do some work there,” said Fry, pointing to renovations of the bathrooms and that building.

“When they took it over at the beginning of their lease, it was in good working condition,” said Fry.

Commissioners unanimously approved a motion to extend the current lease until July 1 to give the soccer association time to make repairs to meet the terms of the original lease and then enter into a new, one-year lease that would start on July 1.

City officials also said the city would look at the park at the same time and work on fixing things it is responsible for.

Meanwhile, the soccer association only uses two of the three fields at the park and city commissioners on Monday made a determination as to what to do with the third field.

Last month, both the Evan Oglesby Foundation and Toccoa Little League made requests for the third field to use for their programs.

However on Monday, city commissioners voted unanimously to use the third field to build a burn building for the fire department to use for training.

City Commissioner Jeanette Jamieson said she feels that is the best use for that third field.

“I certainly think the Fire Department deserves everything we can do for them,” said Jamieson. “They have done a lot for people in this community by getting that ISO rating down.”

She said the field would be of more need to the city right now than the others wanting to use it.

Officials note that the third field is also closest to the current police training center.

Finally, commissioners also unanimously approved a new lease agreement between the city, the Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce, and the Stephens County Historical Society for the historic train depot.

According to Morse, the lease contained no changes.