With the final numbers tallied on the Pickens County Courthouse construction, County Commissioner Rob Jones was confident the bond will be paid soon and with the final budget coming in under what was set aside, a windfall seems to be set for all who participated in the first S.P.L.O.S.T. collection.Jones has predicted for months that the project wasn’t going to be as costly as anticipated. Even though the budget was set at $17 million for the project it looks like the final cost is $15,782,124.46.

Per Finance Assistant Jason Segers,

“By law, any monies collected must be used to retire the (courthouse) bonds first. After the bond is paid off, which is expected to take place with April’s collections, the remaining funds along with any subsequent collections will be divided among the county and the cities pursuant to the 2008 SPLOST Resolution.”

“Bear in mind that April’s collections are received at the end of May, because SPLOST funds are distributed to the county one month behind their collection. At that point the county’s portion of remaining collections will be used to retire debt related to the community center,”

Segers reported.

That leaves the cities of Talking Rock, Jasper and Nelson set to receive a portion of the remainder. Please see video for discussion.