Additional Parking to be Added to North Side of Historic Courthouse

Additional parking will be added at the Stephens County Historic Courthouse in time for the early voting for the November 5 General Election, which begins in October.

Yesterday, Stephens County Commissioners approved moving forward with expanding the parking lot at the Historic Courthouse adjacent to West Tugalo Street. 

Currently, parking directly on the courthouse property is limited to three parking spots, but research revealed historic photos of the Courthouse property showing that a large section of what is now landscaping between the north side of the building and West Tugalo Street was paved parking. 

At the direction of the Board of Commissioners, work will begin immediately to add parking to that area, removing one tree, with the remaining trees being preserved, and  approximately 20 parking spots to be added, the majority of which will be handicap accessible parking. 

County Administrator Christian Hamilton spoke with WNEG News following yesterday’s meeting, and detailing the plan for additional parking.

 

Board member Chuck Wright also spoke, talking about the need for accessible parking to ensure citizens’ rights to vote.

Also at the June 11 meeting of the Stephens County Board of Commissioners, the first public hearing on the tentative FY2025 budget hearing was held; the second public hearing will be held on June 25.  WNEG News spoke with County Administrator Christian Hamilton about the meeting. 

As previously reported by WNEG News, the proposed $40,333,276 FY2025 budget would be a 5.2% percent decrease from the current fiscal year’s adopted budget of $42,527,570. Projected fund balances for the end of FY2024 show that the county stands to finish the fiscal year $1,281,051, or 3 percent under the adopted $42.5 million budget.