Ranger – Earlier this year, Ellen Stephens hoped to gain support for a $1 million covered, multipurpose arena and stables in Cherokee County. For now, she would settle for patching a sinkhole that is impeding the use of the current arena.
Stephens, an officer of the Cherokee County Saddle Club, said the group is renting facilities from the neighboring Union County Saddle Club in Blairsville, Ga., to hold its bigger events this year. The move costs $400 per rental but became necessary after the sinkhole was discovered at the arena in the spring.
“There’s a big drain pipe that runs underneath that competition arena,” Stephens said. “It runs from the high part of that site down to the low part, which is downhill from the arena. That pipe has apparently collapsed somewhere and that’s why there is a hole, a drainage pipe failing.”
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.
But whether the topic is construction of a new arena or making repairs to the current one, the problem remains the same – a lack of funding. The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners recently agreed to a $48.5 million settlement that resolved more than 20 lawsuits against the county stemming from past practices by the Department of Social Services.
Securing major funding in fiscally conservative Cherokee County was already a steep uphill climb. Now, Stephens is aware that grant money likely is the one and only path to realizing her hopes for the site.
She was pleased to see commissioners approve $65,462 for a grant writer-administrator position in the county’s 2022-23 budget, especially since some grants can only be submitted by a government entity. The sinkhole repairs are expected to cost tens of thousands of dollars, and Stephens said she knows they likely are not going to happen quickly due to the plodding nature of the grant process.
“There were a couple of different estimates we had, one was about $39,000, but again, that’s really not certain until you scope out how many different things drain into that pipe,” Stephens said. “That’s an estimate if things are not too complicated under there.”
Stephens went before the commissioners during a March 8 meeting and presented a proposal for a $1 million covered, multipurpose arena and stables. The arena would be an enlarged and upgraded version of the current one.
“The existing arena, the plan would be to make it somewhat wider and somewhat longer ... and that would be covered,” Stephens said. “But you also would have to do a lot of building, like bleachers, for example.”
Although the 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.
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. Ha’s economic analysis contends that construction of a covered, multipurpose arena and stables would have a $2 million economic impact on Cherokee County, while operations of the facility would have a $3.8 million economic impact annually.
Spending on lodging in 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 are particularly important, she said, to generate more local economic activity. Stephens also would like to see upgraded parking at the fairgrounds.
“I think one thing we really do need is a plan for that site out there,” Stephens said. “There’s a combination of things you absolutely need and a combination of things you would look to develop in the future.
“Absolutely needed is a covered arena and then stabling for horses. Without stabling, you’re not going to have multi-day events that keep people in town overnight.”