Toccoa Weighs Opening 380 West Currahee Street to Disposal Proposals

Toccoa’s City Commission placed a consequential question about 380 West Currahee Street on its Nov. 12, 2018 agenda: whether to declare the city-owned site surplus and authorize requests for proposals for its disposal. The agenda establishes that commissioners were asked to consider beginning that process, which could put the property on a path out of city control; it does not record what they decided.

The distinction matters because declaring public property surplus is a preliminary step toward selling or otherwise disposing of it. For people following changes along Currahee Street, the issue was not simply an agenda entry but whether Toccoa would retain a site it owned, redirect it to another public use, or solicit outside proposals that could lead to a transfer.

The 2018 proposal followed the city’s earlier acquisition of the address. WNEG Radio reported in August 2016 that the commission unanimously approved a purchase agreement for 380 West Currahee Street and 488 West Currahee Street from Synovus Bank, with a combined $30,000 sale price. The station reported that city officials and Commissioner Terry Carter described the purchase as part of cleanup and economic-redevelopment efforts in the Currahee Beautification Corridor; two years later, the agenda raised the possibility of disposing of one of those properties.

City commissioners were the decision-makers asked to act on the surplus declaration and proposal request. In WNEG Radio’s 2016 reporting, then-City Manager Billy Morse said the two acquired sites had vacant buildings, while Carter said city and Downtown Development Authority control of the former Straight Shooters building could support cleanup and an economically useful redevelopment. Those statements explain the earlier reported purpose for owning the site, but they do not state a position on the 2018 disposal proposal.

What is documented is a proposal for commission consideration on Nov. 12, 2018. The agenda does not establish that commissioners approved, amended, rejected or tabled it, nor that the city issued requests for proposals, received offers, selected a recipient, sold the property or changed its ownership. WNEG Radio’s account supports the earlier acquisition and reported redevelopment context, not a dated official outcome for the later disposal question.

The next public step is to determine what the commission did at its Nov. 12 meeting and whether later city action followed. Minutes from that meeting, followed by any subsequent city record on 380 West Currahee Street, would answer the unresolved questions: whether the site was declared surplus, whether offers were sought, and whether Toccoa ultimately kept, transferred or repurposed the property.