Toccoa To Seek Grant for Schaefer Center Sound System

The city of Toccoa will pursue grant funding to help pay for a new sound system at the Schaefer Center in downtown Toccoa.

On Monday, city commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to allow the city to seek a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission that would help pay for the sound system.

Toccoa City Manager Billy Morse said that the grant funds would pay for part of the sound system with the city covering the rest of the cost in its Fiscal Year 2017 budget that starts in July.

“The total project cost is $92,590, of which ARC will fund 50 percent of that,” said Morse. “The budget that you will receive in April will include the balance of those funds, the city’s share of those funds.”

Main Street Toccoa said that the city should hear about whether it receives the Applachian Regional Commission grant sometime in late October or early November.

The sound system is one of three projects that the city has currently prioritized at the Schaefer Center as part of the ongoing renovations and improvements.

The first priority was the re-installation of a new marquee for the theater.

Morse said the city is continuing to work on getting that project started.

“We have received bids for the new marquee,” said Morse. “We have one apparent low bidder. We are negotiating with that individual concerning the installation of the marquee and some of the features, whether we have LED versus neon lighting, whether we have an electronic reader board as opposed to the manual reader board, so we have not brought that back to the commission yet for consideration and approval. We want to negotiate the best price possible for that marquee and then present it to the city commission.”

In January, the Fox Theatre Institute presented the city of Toccoa with a grant check of $46,295 to be used to help fund the installation of a historic marquee at the Schaefer Center.

Morse said city staff hopes to have that marquee proposal ready for the commission in the next several weeks so that the project can move forward as quickly as possible.

“The Fox Theatre grant folks would like to see us have it installed by June 30th,” said Morse of the marquee. “It is probably unlikely that we will get it installed that quickly, so we will probably have to ask for a grant extension, but we want to make sure we get it right, get the best package, the best price, before we bring it back to the commission for consideration.”

The third priority project for the Schaefer Center, besides the marquee and the sound system, is renovating the theater’s balcony.

Morse said the city will begin looking at that once the first two priorities are finished.