Troup County voters approve E-SPLOST

Published 8:52 pm Tuesday, March 16, 2021

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Troup County voters passed the E-SPLOST VI by a large margin on Tuesday night.

A total of 2338 voters chose yes, or 70 percent, and 1020 chose no, or 30 percent. The E-SPLOST vote was the only election on the ballot.

E-SPLOST stands for Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax and voters approved the continuation of a one-cent sales tax on all retail purchases in Troup County.

TCSS is projecting that it will collect $72,159,375 in E-SPLOST VI, plus projects to receive roughly $8 million in capital outlay funding, which is allocated by the state for use in specific projects that meet the state’s criteria. TCSS has released $81,802,982 worth of proposed projects for ESPLOST VI.

E-SPLOST VI was passed in every single precinct, though voter turnout was low. Seven of the 14 precincts had less than 100 total election day votes.

The largest and most noteworthy project as part of E-SPLOST VI is a new Rosemont Elementary School. A lot of work is also expected at Callaway High School, where a new performing arts center will be built, the gymnasium will be renovated, the soccer area will be improved and some work will be done to the baseball and softball fields.

Other E-SPLOST VI projects include six to eight new classrooms that will be added at Hogansville Elementary, West Point Elementary’s entryway will get a facelift and LaGrange High’s auditorium will be renovated.

Other projects that are part of E-SPLOST VI include several capital outlay projects, where TCSS will receive additional funding. They include HVAC replacements at Bertha Weathersbee Elementary, Gardner Newman Middle, Hogansville Elementary, LaGrange High and West Point Elementary. There are also flooring projects at Berta Weathersbee, Hollis Hand Elementary and Long Cane Middle. Berta and Hollis Hand will also be getting lighting upgrades.

Troup High School will also be getting re-roofed.

Other expenditures include technology upgrades totaling $7.6 million, such as Chromebook replacements, teacher and administrator computers and more. System-wide buses will be replaced at a projected cost of $5 million.

Security measures will be installed at a cost of about $2.3 million.