Developments in County Elections Office Plans
By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor
At last month’s Dade County Commission meeting (on November 2nd), the commissioners unanimously voted to purchase just over three acres of land to be used for the new elections office building. This came as a surprise to many who had been following the subject because the last significant public discussion of the topic was during a December 2022 work session.
Last year’s work session concluded with the county and City of Trenton agreeing to use the gravel lot next to the old train depot for the elections office. See the January 4th, 2023 issue of the Sentinel for a full recap of the work session. This article also explains the other proposed locations (the old train depot, the historic courthouse, and the Trenton Civic Center) that were decided to be unsuitable.
The vote this November happened after an executive session at the end of the monthly meeting. The property is directly northeast of Bank of Dade, bordering Sunset Drive and Georgia Avenue. It is commonly called “the Dyer property.”
The Dyer property was originally considered for the elections office in 2022. The April 20th, 2022 issue of the Sentinel reported, “[County Executive Ted] Rumley noted that different locations were looked at, but he thinks they have decided to put the new building on a piece of property near the Bank of Dade, because it is centrally located.” County officials confirmed that this property had been in discussion in recent years.
The December 2022 work session did not discuss the Dyer property, explaining instead issues with the current set-up and other proposed locations. While meetings within the last year made references to the elections office in broad, vague terms, no specific action items or updates relating to the gravel lot next to the train depot were given.
As to why nothing about the change in plans had been publicly discussed recently, Lamar Lowery (District 1 commissioner) said, “We discuss stuff together. Two commissioners can discuss stuff without having a meeting.”
When asked why so much time has passed since April 2022, Don Townsend (county clerk and CFO) wrote, “The surveys and other core sampling, along with meetings with engineers, etc., takes time to perform all due-diligence required to determine the best location to construct a county facility.”
The funds used to purchase the Dyer property came from the 2022 sale of 32 acres on Back Valley Road. Regarding how much land in the county is owned by government entities, Rumley noted that this Back Valley property is back on the tax rolls. He further explained that once renovations on the old train depot are completed, the public defender’s office will move into the depot, allowing the county to sell the current building (129 Case Avenue) to TVN/Trenton Telephone Company because the company has expressed a desire to purchase it.
Lowery told the Sentinel that citizens had expressed concern about how much property the county government, city government, and school system owned. He said, “We looked at the field behind the main courthouse, but it wasn’t really for sale and the price was in the millions. We kept looking. We finally talked to the city, and they were willing to give the property by the swimming pool/community center in exchange for the county doing their elections.”
Lowery said that once the county tallied up retaining wall and drainage work needed to handle water flow at the gravel lot, the sum was more than the $100,000 needed to buy the Dyer property. He added that the Dyer property “gives us three acres instead of less than an acre.”
Townsend further explained, “Due to the slope in elevation, the property located next to the old train depot, aka the ‘City Property,’ was surveyed and found to have drainage/storm water runoff issues that would be too financially absorbent to justify moving the project forward at that proposed location.”
Townsend said that the Dyer property is “flat, making it handicap accessible and easy to park near the building that is not on a slope.”
However, Phillip Hartline (District 2 commissioner) does not agree that the Dyer property is any more accessible than the depot lot, noting that grading work must happen at both lots and water runoff must be dealt with on the Dyer property the same as at the train depot lot.
Hartline further explained that the slope was not significant, but drainage was a bigger issue, saying, “The slope of that lot is irrelevant to what we were doing there. The issue was the city wanted us to pay for engineering and storm water runoff and pay to put it in on the city property, not just the county portion.”
Hartline was also opposed to running the city elections for free, saying, “Even if we buy property, we still have to pay to run our elections.”
His understanding of the situation with the train depot lot was that the county would help pave the city roads surrounding the lot. This additional work is what made the train depot lot too expensive for Hartline to feel comfortable with moving forward.
Hartline explained that he still believes in limiting the amount of government-owned property in the county, which he said is why he preferred the train depot lot and held out as long as possible before the costs were too much. In agreement with Rumley, Hartline is not overly concerned about this new land purchase because the public defender’s current building will be going back on the tax digest.
Both Melissa Bradford (District 4 commissioner) and Robert Goff (District 3 commissioner) noted that they agreed with Townsend’s remarks.
As to why Dade needs an elections office, Lowery explained, “We had no choice because the state mandates what we have to do for elections. None of us are for making bigger government, but the state can force us to do stuff, and often they do. We feel like we did our due diligence, but money-wise, it just wasn’t feasible.”
Rumley also explained that the state has specifications about size, spacing, entrances, exits, etc. that must be followed when constructing this building.
Several county officials mentioned the difficulties imposed by state mandates. Townsend wrote, “The State of Georgia continuously changes the rule book on our Board of Elections. It’s always a new machine, or new printer, or new paper, or something else the State mandates, many times at the expense of our taxpayers as an unfunded state mandate. I will acknowledge that the State has paid for the initial cost of hardware purchased over the last few years of change, but then they rely on each county to pay for the ongoing maintenance costs associated with that new equipment. This proposed facility is not a bunch of ‘wants’ but actual needs to house, maintain and protect our election process for years to come.”
Lowery noted, “There was talk of having an Industrial Development Authority office in the building, but for now, it’ll just be elections. There will be room for expansion if we need to.” He said that the gravel lot by the train depot didn’t offer room for expansion once space for parking was considered, but the Dyer property offers extra space.
It will likely be a year before an election will be held in the new building. According to Townsend, “Since 2024 is a Presidential election year and also the year our constitutional officers, elected officials, Superior Court Judges, three County Commission seats and three School Board seats will be voted upon, we doubt the Georgia Secretary of State and U.S. Department of Justice will authorize a move of the elections process mid-year 2024. After approval from the Secretary of State to officially move the election processing center, I believe it would be necessary for new precinct cards to be mailed to each voter of the Trenton precinct since technically that precinct would be physically moved from Case Avenue to Georgia Avenue. Furthermore, no precinct may be relocated within 90 days of an election due to advanced voting, etc. Therefore, movement from the current location may not occur until this time next year. If there is a window of opportunity in Summer 2024 and the Secretary of State approves, then the Commission would most likely be amenable to the move, but we will comply fully with State law regarding this relocation.”
The Sentinel asked the commissioners if they could confirm that all possible options of property owned by the county have been discussed and ruled out, to which all felt that due diligence had been done and all options had been thoroughly discussed before being ruled out.
