Revised bond issue to help make Tech campus a reality

Oconee County will spend up to four million dollars to prepare land for the county’s campus of Tri-County Technical College.  The decision last night to issue bonds in the amount of $4 million followed an executive session and a civil engineer’s presentation of what it will take to prepare 30 acres inside the Information and Technology Park on highway 11.  Two councilmen cast no votes.  Both Reg Dexter and Joel Thrift say spending more money now to grade the property will save the county later.  Two weeks ago, the council said no to larger bond issue that would have incorporated other projects—such as new hangars at the airport and a new office for the Westminster magistrate. Andrew Allen of the engineering company Thomas and Hutton told the council the great variable in how the industrial park is graded is the elevation at which the Tech campus will sit.  Allen said the elevation will determine how development in the rest of the park will fall into place.  But Councilman Wayne McCall expressed concern about Thomas and Hutton’s first option, which would have spent $5.5 million to grade and move up to 1.5 million cubic yards of dirt.