City To Pursue Grants for Improvements at Lake Toccoa

The city of Toccoa is working to get grant money to help with further developments at Lake Toccoa.

On Monday, the Toccoa City Commission unanimously approved a project resolution for Lake Toccoa recreation development efforts.

Toccoa City Manager Billy Morse said that this would help the city move towards its plan to continue developing the Lake Toccoa property beyond the golf course that re-opened a couple of months ago.

“What we are wanting is permission from the commission to apply for a couple of grants and those would help us put in an outdoor walking trail around the lake, a pavilion where the concrete pad, and some docks for fishing, boating, and so forth,” said Morse.

He went on to say that such grants are available through the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Morse said the city’s resolution would allow them to pursue two different grants.

“One would apply for a $100,000 grant for the trail project, a $100,000 grant for the outdoor recreation project,” said Morse, who added a match would be required.

According to Morse, the city believes most of the match would be in-kind work and also, the grants requiring declaring the lake a “green space.”

According to Morse, designating Lake Toccoa as a green space is not far off what the city has already done at Lake Toccoa with its watershed protection efforts.

Also, he said that any cash match required could be budgeted for next fiscal year since the money would not likely be spent until next Fall.

Meanwhile, Morse asked the city commission to have the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission write the grants for the city at a cost of $1,500.

Toccoa City Commissioner Gail Fry said that is a good idea.

“They have been here several times and gone over the property and talked to us about different things we need t do,” said Fry.

As part of its motion, the city commission approved using the GMRC to write the grants.

Morse said that one of the grant applications is due at the end of this month and the other is due at the beginning of next month.

There is no word on when the city would receive word on whether it receives the grants.