Attendees at a town hall called by Gilmer County commissioners to gauge interest in a recreation center were overwhelmingly in favor of the project.
Ellijay Elementary School’s auditorium was close to capacity for the meeting Wednesday, Jan. 17.
Brady West, a member of the county parks and recreation advisory board, was first to speak and ended all doubt about the desires of the crowd.
“Anybody here that is in favor of this, would you please stand up?” he asked.
There was a rush of noise as the majority of the crowd stood.
“I would say 95 percent. I think that is all we need to hear,” he said.
Heath Thompson, another advisory board member, was next up. He said he had a speech, but was going to forego it.
“There have been two polls now and a third one tonight that has been very overwhelming,” he said. “This is twice now that we have had this kind of turnout, so I don’t know how many more times we need it.”
Thompson said the people in the room paid taxes and were willing to have their money go toward a recreation center.
Most speakers in the hour which followed were in favor of building a recreation center.
Three speakers said they wanted a countywide referendum on the issue.
David Bennett, one of the speakers who wanted a countywide vote, said he was neutral on the issue, but had many questions about construction costs and the process commissioners would go through for the recreation center. He also has a letter to the editor in this week’s newspaper.
He wanted more details about cost before supporting the project.
“It’s a great idea, but somebody has to pay for it,” Bennett said.
A former school teacher, Lou Ann Kendrick Teague, spoke about the value of athletics in raising and educating children.
Toward the end of her time, she made her point.
“If you want to say these children right here are more important than a road? Yes, they are,” she said. “But remember, if you clapped about that, don’t whine about the road.”
One speaker, Kimberly Reckles, was squarely against the project.
“If we learned anything from tonight’s poll, the scientific poll conducted by Mr. West, it is that parks and rec people show up,” she said. “It does reflect, necessarily, the will of the majority of the population of the county.”
She referred to those in favor of the rec center as a “sports complex mob.”
“If there is a problem here, it is not the lack of a sports complex, it is a mass formation psychosis,” she said.
She said the park and rec advisory had no fiduciary responsibility and may be providing the board of commissioners with risky advice or advice for their own benefit.
“Look around this room and you’ll see it is filled mostly with builders, developers, real estate agents, chamber of commerce employees and their board members, along with [unintelligble] and bankers,” she said.
At this point the crowd began objecting to the comments. Gilmer County Chair Charlie Paris called down the crowd and said everyone has the right to their opinion.
Reckles was allowed to continue.
“This town hall comes down to this, measuring the demands of a few hundred rather rambunctious, entitled people represented by an advisory board operating in an echo chamber and the 32,000 other members of this community at large who would have to fund it,” she said.
Reckles finished by telling the commissioners not to saddle the children with debt. She said the board should give the recreation department the modest things the recreations director has requested.
After a little more than an hour of speakers, Paris thanked the crowd and said the night had been informative.