A rebuild is planned for the Gilmer County office of the Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC), which was demolished by a tornado.
“July starts the beginning of our fiscal year so everything was kind of on hold through June. It’s in the process. It’s just not a fast process,” said Mason Turner, chief GFC ranger for Gilmer and Pickens County, about the rebuild.
The forestry commission office and equipment garage sustained severe damage, including removal of a wall and much of its tin roof, when the EF1 tornado tore a path on Ellington Road May 8.
The building has continued to deteriorate since then, most recently with what’s left of its roof collapsing. Caution tape, which had been put up before but since removed, was recently wrapped around the building again and held in place by orange traffic barrels.
“Right now, we’re working with the insurance adjustor. We can’t do any kind of cleanup or anything like that till everything’s been approved,” Turner said.
The forestry commission is currently splitting its tractor-plow heavy equipment units, which are used in containing wildfires, between its Pickens County office and the Highway 282 fire station in Gilmer.
The new building will be built in the same space on Ellington Road. A contractor has been selected, but demolition and construction start dates have not been decided. Removal of trees on the property that were uprooted by the tornado is also part of the plans, Turner noted.
“Once the insurance part of it gets nailed down, I think that’s when the work will begin, but that’s still in talks with the contractor and the insurance people,” he added.