Nearly a quarter million taxpayer dollars used to move old barn in Gwinnett County (sales, contractor)

[ehoez]

Great use of money..



Nearly a quarter million taxpayer dollars used to move old barn | 11alive.com

[BobKovacs]

Meh- no big deal. It would have cost them something to build a new facility, and they're preserving a piece of history. It's "greener" than throwing it in a landfill........

[ehoez]

so this is ok? but a new park/soap box derby is a very bad bad ideal eh?

[erick295]

[cittic10]

I would have taken it apart board by board , bubble wrapped each and every piece then hauled it to the new site and re-assembled it for half the price.

It's a shame they didn't shop around better.

Then again this is also the county with a corrupt commission that clearly doesn't mind blowing money on unnecessary things. Money? That grows on trees.

[red92s]

Originally Posted by ehoez

so this is ok? but a new park/soap box derby is a very bad bad ideal eh?

They needed space regardless of where it came from. Money would have been spent. Not the case with the soap box derby track.

Also, this was paid for with a special option sales tax which I'm guessing the voting public approved.

[Mishap]

My guess is either the barn, the land, or the contractor is owned by one of the Board of Commissioners. They're not exactly the model of transparency or ethics in gov't.

[ericsonga]

Gwinnett has wiped out so much of its past, I'm glad that they can keep at least a few things!

As far as that derby track, that was in Dekalb. That has no bearing on how Gwinnett, which is in a much much better financial condition than Dekalb.

[ATLTJL]

Preserving history is important.

But I can't say that I think this was a good use of tax funds. Especially when there are perfectly good historic farm displays at McDaniel Farms Park in Gwinnett.

I'm sure if I knew how they spend all the money there is a lot that would infuriate me. Every project can't go through a referendum, but they probably need better oversight. Of course, the reporting on this is pretty spotty and didn't fully explain the county's logic in doing this or exactly who had to vote on it approve it, so it's hard to know all the details.

[sofjwp]

Outrageous. That's 200k that could have been used to pay for cars, clothes and dinners for a lot of CEO's and politicians.

There is already enormous preservation in Gwinnett- there are at least 3 trees over 50 years old still left in the county.