Ranger – A funding request for a $1 million multipurpose covered arena and stables gained little traction with the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners.
Ellen Stephens, an officer of the Cherokee County Saddle Club, went before the board during the March 8 meeting and presented a proposal for the facility to be constructed at the Cherokee County Fairgrounds on U.S. 64 West. Although multiple commissioners expressed general support for such a facility, board Chair Dan Eichenbaum and Commissioner Jan Griggs both encouraged Stephens to instead pursue grant funding for the project.
“I think you all know that I’m very supportive of the arena out there and getting it covered,” Griggs said. “This means a lot to a lot of people in this county.
“Funding this right now at this time for our county, as Dr. Eichenbaum has already said, is a very difficult thing with everything the county is facing right now. I think that maybe there are some other grants we can look at, and I’ll be happy to talk to you again ... and maybe we can fund the whole thing through grants.”
Stephens said the Saddle Club has been operating at the Cherokee County Fairgrounds, formerly Mountain Folk Center, since 2014 and has held about 50 events at the site during that time. She provided the commissioners with an economics analysis of the proposed arena and stables conducted by Steve Ha, professor of economics at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.
Ha’s economic analysis contends that construction of a covered, multipurpose arena and stables would have a $2 million positive economic impact on Cherokee County, while operations of the facility would have a $3.8 million positive economic impact annually.
Spending on lodging within the county would be expected to increase by about $400,000 per year, while Cherokee County would collect an additional $59,000 in property tax annually and $100,000 in sales tax. Stephens said a 152-stall facility in Rabun County, Ga., was generating about $1 million annually in economic activity prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, with about $40,000 per year coming from the site itself.
“Stalls bring people there and make them stay overnight,” Stephens said. “When you have events and you can put the horse somewhere, you get a hotel room, you eat at restaurants and you do the whole thing. Multi-day events generate a lot of income.”
Several stakeholders and would-be event sponsors also spoke before the commissioners in favor of funding the facility. Stephens said 20 businesses also wrote letters of support for the project.