The Clarkesville Community House is open for business, but a formal rental agreement is still on hold.
As construction was wrapping up on the community house, the city council was crafting a rental agreement for would-be renters to have on file with the city.
During Monday night’s council meeting on July 10, Clarkesville City Manager Keith Dickerson explained that one issue they are having at city hall is how to put a hold on the credit card for the damage deposit amount without actually charging the credit card.
“That’s a lot of money for them to come up with upfront,” he told the council.
The damage deposit is $500. The damage deposit includes a $100 non-refundable cleaning fee. After each event, someone from the city will inspect the facility. So long as there have been no damages to the facility or infractions, the city will refund the damage deposit minus the $100 cleaning fee.
Dickerson explained to the council that staff was going to work around the damage deposit issue based on what event was renting the facility.
Rates
The current draft of the rental agreement has the fees set by resident or non-resident and weekday rental or weekend rental.
The fees are as follows:
- Clarkesville residents
$200 per weekday and $225 daily on weekends - Non-residents
$250 per weekday and $275 daily on weekends - Damage Deposit
$500
Currently, the way the city has the fees structured and its payment system set up, a resident would have to put $700 on hold on a credit card for a weekday event. The city would refund them $400 if there are no infractions or damage, but the city would have to cut a check for the refund.
Affordability
Meredith Lleshi, who works in the city’s utility billing department, told the council that they have received numerous calls about renting the facility for short-term events (less than half a day), such as birthday parties.
“We’ve gotten lots of calls. Most of them, overwhelmingly, have said we can’t afford that. The way it’s written right now is anybody that wants to rent it has to put $700 down. Most people that want to have a birthday party for their child or a baby shower, they don’t have it,” she said.
Lleshi explained to the council that if this facility is going to be a community house for the community to have life events, there needs to be a distinction between large corporate events and a 25-person birthday party.
She expressed to the council that staff receives about two calls a day about people being interested in the community house.
“I just hope we can find a way to make it more available for just common everyday community members to be able to use this for their event,” she urged.
The council voted to table the rental agreement until their retreat on August 18 so they can further discuss the matter.
