Toccoa Weighs Soil Testing to Head Off Ritz Theatre Construction Surprises

Toccoa city officials discussed an invoice for geotechnical boring at the Ritz Theatre during a Sept. 22, 2025 City Commission work session, with Mayor Carter saying the testing would identify the water table and any springs before a construction plan is developed. Carter introduced Jacob Pinson and Abby Watson of J. Davis Construction and Joe Gardner as the city considered work intended to clarify what it would take to build successfully on the site.

The question is consequential because soil and groundwater conditions can shape the design, cost and reliability of construction at the theatre property. Carter said the city had sought to do as much investigation as possible before bringing a project cost back for consideration, with the aim of reducing unexpected expenses and avoiding conditions that could become surprises once planning or building advances.

The Sept. 22 discussion grew out of an earlier decision to move the Ritz Theatre project forward far enough to obtain costs for later consideration, according to Carter’s remarks in the work-session minutes. Rather than treat subsurface conditions as a later construction issue, the mayor described the proposed boring as preliminary work: testing for the water table and springs first so a subsequent construction plan could account for them.

City leaders framed the testing as a cost-control and planning measure. Carter’s position was that early information about the site would help the city understand both the eventual expense and the measures needed for a functional building. J. Davis Construction representatives Pinson and Watson, along with Gardner, were introduced for the agenda item, though the minutes excerpt does not record separate statements from them or identify a competing proposal.

What is documented is a discussion and the existence of an invoice for geotechnical boring; the record does not establish that commissioners approved payment, that the boring occurred, or what it found. Nor does it establish a final construction design, total project cost or construction schedule. Those distinctions matter because the testing was described as information gathering before costs and plans return for consideration, not as a completed building step.

The next public milestone would be a later city agenda, vote, agreement or set of minutes showing whether Toccoa authorized the testing and what followed. Residents will still need answers on whether borings were completed, whether the results changed the project’s design or cost, and when commissioners may be asked to consider a construction plan for the Ritz Theatre.