A skateboard park isn't the only project that would be funded if voters in McDuffie County approve a new Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax V plan later this year. The other project is a swimming pool - something that has been discussed among government officials for years - The McDuffie Mirror has learned.
Already officials had planned on building a skateboard park with the $300,000 coming directly from SPLOST V. And at a recent work session, McDuffie County commissioners also approved an Olympic-size swimming pool coming out of such funding, too.
The projected cost of a swimming pool, which would likely be operated by officials of the Thomson-McDuffie Recreation and Leisure Services, would be about $690,000, according to McDuffie County Manager Don Norton.
Tentative funding for both projects was approved last Wednesday when commissioners met at their first of two monthly meetings and approved of an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Thomson and Town of Dearing. Commissioners also passed a resolution that calls for a referendum on the overall SPLOST V funding proposal. Mr. Norton said the total estimated cost of the pool had been switched around from other projects.
Amid the juggling of proposed SPLOST V funds, a sizeable portion was taken from the Usry Pond dam project, which city officials had sought.
If SPLOST V is approved by voters in the November election, it would mean that funding for the new swimming pool project would come in the second year of the six-year SPLOST funding proposal.
Officials have not decided where the swimming pool would be located.
