Other business
Also at Thursday's meeting, the Forsyth County commission voted to approve the following:
• A $289,110 bid with ArcMP for consultant services to put in judicial software.
• Contract for $250,000 with Wayne Miller for the handling and disposal of liquid sludge from Dick Creek Plant.
• A conditional use permit for an 8,000-square-foot school affiliated with an existing church at 7100 Majors Road.
Maximum enrollment is 50 students.
Note: All votes were 5-0 unless otherwise noted.
-- Frank Reddy
Forsyth County commissioners are weighing the next purchase of green space.
The commission held off Thursday night on signing a contract for 100 acres along the Chattahoochee River and Dick Creek. The parcel is off Old Atlanta Road, next to the Olde Atlanta Club subdivision in south Forsyth.
Commissioners plan to revisit the matter at their Feb. 5 meeting.
According to officials, the county could pay $50,000 per acre for the riverfront property owned by the McClure family.
That's about $5 million of the $36 million earmarked to acquire green space in the $100 million parks and recreation bond voters approved in February.
The parcel is part of about 243 acres of wooded, rolling hills that is home to Verse Noia Farm, a full-service horse care facility.
The portion of the property the county wants to buy would include 4,000 feet of Chattahoochee River frontage and 3,000 feet along Dick Creek.
The value of the entire site is listed by the county tax assessors office at $4.29 million.
Commissioner Brian Tam spoke with excitement about the potential purchase leading up to the meeting.
"This is exactly what we wanted to do with the green space funds," Tam said. "It would be ideal and user-friendly for our citizens to go down there and walk and hike along the creek. It's very scenic."
Tam had hoped to move forward with the purchase contract Thursday.
Earlier in the week, Commissioner Jim Harrell had expressed interest in the property, though he suspected any decision would be postponed.
"Having riverfront property is obviously of interest to us," Harrell said at the time.
The county has made official its first two purchases of green space. Those include the $8.9 million Wallace Tatum tract, which is 186 acres in northwestern Forsyth, and the $8.5 million Harrison property, 63 acres in south Forsyth.
The contract for the Buice property is slated to close Feb. 2 at $5.1 million, which could make it the county's third official purchase.