Keep hope alive for the Courthouse Inn

A reprieve of a few days has been granted the project to allow developers to turn the former Oconee Courthouse into a hotel. Last night John Powell told a committee of the Oconee County Council that he is not seeking a new extension of his lease, which is set to expire on Saturday. Instead Powell requested and the committee agreed to recommend that he be given a few days to flesh out the possibility that a lender in North Georgia would be willing to offer the investment funds which Powell and his partner, to date, have failed to attract. Powell told the county’s Real Estate, Facilities and Land Management Committee that the offer surfaced in a phone call on Friday. The committee also received a letter from Walhalla Mayor Danny Edwards which pledged a developmental incentive to the hotel developers and expressed the hope that the county would do the same.