Augusta’s SPLOST 9 project list has grown to $463 million, despite commission efforts Thursday to cut it to a more manageable size.
The hefty list, up from $434 million last month, will need seven years’ of collections to fund, Administrator Tameka Allen said at a work session.
The commission is now under a Jan. 6 deadline to finalize the project list, Allen said. That will allow time to draft agreements with Hephzibah and Blythe and for the commission to pass a resolution to place a referendum on the May 19 ballot, she said.
Special purpose, local-option sales taxes have funded millions in Augusta capital projects since local voters approved the first 1% SPLOST in 1990.
The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office remains the largest beneficiary and is slated to receive $103 million, including major improvements at Webster Detention Center.
Sheriff’s Office Chief of Staff Lewis Blanchard told commissioners Thursday the agency hopes the city will borrow the jail funds ahead of collections given the need.
About $70 million is intended to add two prefabricated pods with 288 beds at the overcrowded jail, which is about 300 inmates over capacity. Another $15 million will support urgent jail improvements and $18 million will go toward fleet.
Blanchard said the office expects to be fully staffed at about 650 positions within the next year.
Support has been harder to secure for Augusta Fire Department. Fire Chief Antonio Burden requested funding to replace three stations, but only one station at $7 million remains on the list. The package includes $14.8 million for fire engines. Burden said the department’s $68 million in requests were all actual needs.
Augusta Recreation and Parks still has about $77 million in projects on the list, including $9.7 million for a facility revitalization initiative out of the $25 million the department sought. The package includes no additional money for a south Augusta water park, which received $5 million in SPLOST 8, and does not include the department’s $8.6 million request for Augusta Soccer Park.
Other recreation projects include $22 million to revitalize the Riverwalk and rebuild the city’s waterfront Boathouse, a bonded project championed by Mayor Garnett Johnson. The list sets aside $3 million for city cemeteries and $7 million for aquatics facilities.
A new $10 million park and community center for Augusta’s growing west side remains on the list. Neighborhood activist Patricia Jeter and Commissioner Catherine Smith Rice said the area needs facilities. Johnson agreed.
Large projects that remain in the package include:
- $25 million for a south Augusta industrial sewer expansion
- $13 million for Hephzibah
- $20 million for a juvenile court center
- $18 million to expand Augusta’s convention center
- $17.5 million for interest on the bond issue
