GAINESVILLE – For the first time in two years the Gainesville City Council and the Gainesville City Board of Education held a formal joint meeting.
For 90-minutes the two parties got “reacquainted”, relating what was happening in their respective bailiwicks and asking each other about future plans.
The city council was updated on measures in place and under consideration to keep the schools secure; they were also given details about redistricting for the 2018-2019 school year as the district hopes to create balance in school enrollments that better match school capacity.
In return the city council assured the school board that future annexations and large-scale housing development applications would be considered in light of school availability.
Out of the discussion came one particular expression of need, and it was voiced by longtime school board member Sammy Smith. “There is no arena, there’s no facility, in the county which can adequately host any of Hall County schools' graduations.”
Smith continued, “They are all leasing a church and ticketing their graduates – two tickets per graduate – for their graduation ceremony.”
“There’s no facility large enough to host the longest-running state basketball tournament in Georgia, the Lanierland Tournament,” Smith added.
“There are many, many, many opportunities for a regional arena, and I will say multi-purpose arts, cultural, business expo (and) conferences.”
Smith then pointed out that Gainesville High School is at the mercy of the late spring weather when they conduct their commencement exercises. “We have no ‘Plan B’ if we have torrential rains for our graduation. We’re at City Park.”
Smith said the largest gymnasium in the county is at GHS, seating 3,000. “The largest gym in the whole county is ours. If we go back to the gym then we’re imposing tickets on our graduates and that limits their families for participation.”
Smith said he and Mayor Danny Dunagan had discussed the need for a larger facility on several occasions, one available for use by the city, the city school system and the county school system.
“It’s a big idea, it’s a big idea,” Smith conceded. “My thought is just to share it with you, to put some thoughts together onto the table, and to begin some conversations to recruit some partners – public or private partners – to join forces for a feasibility study.”
Smith said he knew of “ten or twelve partner interests in the community that would join forces with us to create this feasibility study in the months ahead.”
Council member Barbara Brooks agreed whole-heartedly with Smith. “I don’t think there’s been a (city council) meeting that went by...where one of us hasn’t mentioned what we really, really want as far as a convention center. We really want that; unfortunately, you can’t make developers invest their money.”
“We’d like to encourage them, and I think the city does a great job at providing incentives…but we talk about that a lot,” Brooks added. “We want it, too.”
Mayor Dunagan said, “As far as the arena, I know it’s been one of my passions…because our CVB (Convention and Visitor Bureau) is constantly turning down conferences because we don’t have anywhere to hold them, no where big enough.
Both Smith and Dunagan pointed to the new facility in Buford which seats 5,000 people as something they would like to examine.
Dunagan said after the meeting that he felt a feasibility study was a good idea provided it was within budget or able to draw in private funding to assist with its cost. “It’s a good idea. It’s something we’re going to move forward with and see where it goes.”
Councilman Sam Couvillon was a bit more measured in his approach. “I’ll just be real quick on some sort of arena or conference center, I’m fully in favor of us having one but I think it needs to be private development.”
He said past experience by the city supports his position. “If I’m not mistaken that was a loss for the city each year when we owned the Mountain Center, and it led to us selling the Mountain Center.”
“I don’t know that it’s prudent for graduations, for a few nights a year, to invest that kind of money, but if there’s a study that says that it warrants it I’m not averse,” Couvillon confided.
Smith concluded the meeting by saying he recently had opportunity to learn much about the relationships the nineteen other city school systems in Georgia have with their city councils. “We’re learning a lot; the first and most important thing we learned is…how good our relationship with our city is…we have an excellent relationship between school system and city at large compared to other school systems.”
