LaGRANGE – The Special Option Sales Tax is a common topic this year between the major projects that it has funded recently and future infrastructure improvement projects already under consideration in November.

The county has historically spent a large portion of its SPLOST funding on parks and roads. This year, county SPLOST funds have paid for improvements to local parks and numerous road projects, and the upcoming SPLOST is expected to fund additions to Pyne Road Park and other locations if it passes.

City SPLOST funds have paid for improvements to the basketball court at Granger Park, the Bull Street realignment, which is currently in progress, the model mile of the THREAD and a camera plate reader for the LaGrange Police Department along with other projects this year.

“As you can see on the ground today, phase one of the Thread is well under way,” City Manager Meg Kelsey said during a city budget meeting.

“We’ve been trying to use some of that SPLOST money to improve our parks and roads.”

In 2018, the city hopes to use SPLOT funding to continue its work on the Thread, build a fire station to improve call times, build a skate plaza near downtown and perform additional utility location.

The city and county are not responsible for the paving project that is currently going on throughout LaGrange since the roads currently being repaved are all state roads, so the Georgia Department of Transportation gets to make the decisions on when and how to pave those roads.