The old courthouse remains standing for another month at least and the county will consolidate its voting precincts from six to four. The old courthouse was on the agenda for the Habersham County Commission to consider for demolition Monday evening of the 60 year old building.
However, it wasn’t even considered for a vote by the commission. The only discussion about the old courthouse was to remove it from the agenda totally. It was removed with a unanimous vote from the commission.
After the meeting, Commission Chairman Ty Akins spoke to the courthouse being removed from the agenda. “This board was not ready to vote on it,” he said.
Two weeks ago, demolition of the old courthouse failed by a vote of 3-2. The cost of that potential work had recently come down to around $190,000, according to county officials.
Precinct consolidation
The County Commission voted unanimously to consolidate Mud Creek Precinct in Alto with the South Precinct in Cornelia and Amy’s Creek with the North Precinct in Clarkesville.
Prior to the commission’s vote to consolidate, Habersham County Elections Supervisor Laurel Ellison explained to the commission that over the last several years more and more people were taking advantage of absentee, early, and advance voting.
This past November election, of the 3,075 voters assigned to the Mud Creek Precinct, 2,493 voted before Election Day, either through an absentee ballot or in-person voting at the South Precinct . A similar situation occurred at Amy’s Creek. Of the 1,271 voters assigned to the Amy’s Creek Precinct, 962 voted before Election Day either at the South or North Precinct or by casting an absentee ballot.
Ellison told the commission that she had spoken with the officials with the Town of Alto. According to her, those officials were fine with the consolidation of the Mud Creek Precinct with the South Precinct.
The consolidation effort will reduce the number of voting precincts from six to four. The county will now be split almost equally in half with voters casting ballots at the North Precinct and the other half at the South Precinct.
Two of the four precincts will remain as city only precincts. For now, voters in the cities of Demorest and Mt. Airy will continue to vote at their city halls on election day.
