Monroe County Commissioners unanimously approved on Tuesday, Aug. 4 to pay Macon-based SP Design Group $8,400 to develop a conceptual design for a multi-purpose agricultural center to be built at the Monroe County Recreation Department.
If approved, the facility would be used to hold community events including: livestock shows, 4-H youth fairs, rodeos, concerts, religious events, auctions, agricultural machine shows, arts & crafts shows, horticulture shows, trade shows, educational functions, antique shows, gun & knife shows and automobile shows.
Monroe County Manager Jim Hedges estimated the county has just over $1.25 million available in 2014 and 2020 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) funds to build such a facility. The ag center could potentially include: a covered arena with lights, animal stalls with water and electricity, restrooms, a concession area, an announcer’s booth, RV parking with water and electricity, a practice area and additional parking with lighting.
County Manager Hedges said the location where the county’s current outdoor horse arena is located only has about eight acres of space available, and it would take at least 12 acres to build the new ag center. Therefore, Hedges proposed building the new facility on undeveloped, county-owned land next to Fairview Church Road behind the current recreation fields.
County Manager Hedges said SP Design Group previously designed a similar agricultural arena in Rabun County as well as a number of facilities within Monroe County, including the Monroe County Board of Education’s new Agri-Science complex on Thornton Road.
On July 7, District 3 Commissioner Eddie Rowland and Commission Chairman Greg Tapley invited local cattle farmer Butch Copelan, national cutting horse champion Jordan Vaughn, equestrian rider Valerie Payne-Smith, Mary Persons agriculture science teacher Bill Waldrep, Monroe County Extension coordinator Caitlin Jackson and Monroe County recreation director Landon Sparks to an initial meeting to discuss the viability of building an ag center.
While 2014 SPLOST funds were never earmarked specifically for an ag center, then-Commissioners Jim Ham and James Vaughn had revealed publicly at the time the tax was approved their intention of building an arena at the Monroe County Recreation Department.
Chairman Tapley said of the potential ag center: “I’ve always thought a horse arena was a great idea. I’ve always liked it. I’m not trying to make a pure profitable business out of it, but it’s really nice to have a revenue source that kind of helps to cut the cost to the county residents. And it becomes a venue that everybody can enjoy and everybody can appreciate. It may not just be horses, it may be concerts, it may be revivals, whatever.”
Sparks told the group that Payne-Smith approached him in late 2019 about re-opening the recreation department’s existing outdoor horse arena to be used for local riders. In February 2020, just prior to COVID-19, Sparks received approval from Commissioners to re-open the venue on a paid membership basis with the rec department handling event booking.
However, Waldrep, who leads MP’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) program, said the outdoor, uncovered nature of the county’s current arena makes it difficult to schedule events there because so much is contingent upon the weather. Sparks said he could have a roof built on the current arena, but he said he doesn’t want to opt for the “quick fix.”
Sparks said, “I want to make sure that what we do is not just a quick patch, that we’re looking at something that is generations to come.”
After about an hour of discussion, members of the group said the county would likely need a 45,000 square-foot arena (150 feet by 300 feet) along with a barn big enough to house up to 150 stalls that are 144 square-feet apiece. Vaughn, who assists with horse shows all over Georgia and the Southeast, said during weekend-long horse shows, counties actually take in more revenue from stall rentals and Recreational Vehicle (RV) electric and water hook-up rentals than from actual arena rental proceeds. In addition, Vaughn encouraged the county to build a storage bay for sand so that arena users can buy sand directly from the county as another revenue source.
At the conclusion of the committee’s first meeting, Commissioner Rowland instructed the group to exchange ideas over the next month with Copelan and Vaughn heading up the effort. County Manager Hedges reiterated on Tuesday the need to establish an advisory committee to head up the details of the project.
County Manager Hedges said SP Design Group’s conceptual design is expected to be completed by Sept. 15.
