Toccoa Completes Hotel Inspections

The city of Toccoa completes its inspections of area hotels and motels.

Last month, Toccoa officials and officials from the Stephens County Health Department inspected the Country Hearth Inn and the Toccoa Inn.

Toccoa City Manager Billy Morse said that both of those facilities were found to be in much better condition than the previous four establishments inspected by the city this Spring.

Country Hearth 2First regarding the Country Hearth Inn, located just off of Broad Street in downtown Toccoa, Morse said that the facility has been closed by new owners while they get everything up to where it needs to be to operate that hotel.

“Really, the biggest issue there is that because of new ownership, they have to get a new Tourist Accommodation Permit and that is issued by the Health Department,” said Morse. “The Health Department has a long list of ideas they need to comply with so that is in addition to what our city officials found when they inspected it. We did find some things that need to be corrected. None of them are things that cannot be corrected pretty quickly, a couple of structural things, a couple of fire safety-related things.”

A company called Amarin Capital says it recently foreclosed on the property and took it over.

Amarin President and CEO Mario Sarkis said that they saw that the hotel was not up to Amarin’s standards and that they would close it in order to renovate it and bring it up to par.

“We are very serious about Toccoa,” said Sarkis. “We need to move up the standard and we are willing to do that in Toccoa.”

Toccoa Mayor Terry Carter said he is encouraged by the situation developing at the Country Hearth.

“They are telling us that they are going to do improvements that will make it a hotel we can be proud of,” said Carter.

No specific date has been set for the re-opening of the Country Hearth, but Sarkis says the company will make all the necessary changes before trying to open back up.

Toccoa Inn & Suites 2As for the Toccoa Inn off of Big A Road, Morse said it was found to be in the best shape of all of the motels and hotels in toccoa.

Morse said there were a few things, but nothing that caused great concern and all of them can be fixed with the facility remaining open.

Over recent weeks, the city of Toccoa inspected six hotel and motel facilities inside the city limits as part of an ongoing community beautification and code enforcement effort.

Five of those were closed, either for good or until necessary repairs are made, while only the Toccoa Inn remained open.

Carter said he feels these inspections were a step in the right direction.

“First of all, I am really pleased with the work the staff did and the inspection process as a whole,” said Carter. “It was carried out in a very fair manner and using only the state mandated codes for housing. Those motel owners that wish to do Extended Stay now know what it takes to be able to offer permanent housing in a safe and sanitary way.”

Meanwhile, Toccoa City Commissioner Gail Fry said that doing the inspections was best for the community in order to not allow substandard tourist accommodations.

Morse said that moving forward, all motels and hotels in Toccoa will be required to operate at a higher standard and will not be allowed to deteriorate as the inspections will be ongoing to ensure all rules are being complied with.