TIFTON — The Tift County Board of Commissioners voted its approval Monday night for the Tift County Development Authority to sell a portion of the old Georgia State Patrol property to the Georgia Peanut Commission for $370,800. The money from the sale will go toward the county’s debt to the development authority on the new GSP post on U.S. Highway 41 South.

The development authority’s sale to the GPC does not include .6 acres of land and the old driver’s license building.

The county owned the 6.18 acres of property and two buildings — the old GSP Post and the driver’s license building — on Fulwood Boulevard until 2004 when a joint resolution between the county, the development authority and the Tifton-Tift County Airport Authority transferred the property to the Tift County Development Authority. The airport authority is leasing the 3.637 acres of land at the airport to the development authority for a term of 25 years with an option to extend the term another 25 years.

The development authority used the ownership of the Fulwood Boulevard property and the leasehold interest on the acreage at the airport as collateral to borrow approximately $1.6 million to build the GSP post at the airport. Tift County subleases the airport acres and the new GSP building and pays the development authority annual rent payments to pay the costs and expenses of building the post plus the interest the development authority was required to pay to borrow the money and underwrite the project.

According to the agreement, proceeds from the sale/use of the property on Fulwood Boulevard, and any surplus, would be used to reduce the development authority’s loan to build the new post.

Tift County Tax Assessor Teresa Lupo said Tuesday the 6.18 acres, which is tax-exempt because it is owned by the development authority, was probably last assessed for value in 2003. The assessor’s records show the land valued at $370,800; the old GSP post building valued at $305,746; and the old driver’s license building (also formerly the ASCS office) valued at $254,474.

Don Koehler, executive director of the GPC, said Tuesday that the commission has been in its current location on Love Avenue since the ‘60s and had been “looking for the right place for about 20 years.”

“We wanted a place where we would be visible to do the kind of job we need to do to promote peanuts and have farmers have easy access,” Koehler said.

Also, Koehler said, the new location will allow the commission several other advantages, including collaborating with the Georgia Agrirama on billboards to encourage people traveling on the interstate to stop and visit both facilities.

“We want to try to encourage folks to stop in Tifton and make a visit to the Agrirama to see the history and then to the see the future of agriculture at the Georgia Peanut Commission across the interstate,” Koehler said.

The construction of the new facility will be a “low environmental impact” project, Koehler said, and built with “net zero” energy construction. He said discussions are ongoing about whether or not to use the old GSP post building in the new construction plans.

The GPC is a commission of the state, Koehler said, and all GPC members are elected and certified at the secretary of state’s office where they take an oath before serving. An assessment on peanuts pays for the GPC operations, Koehler said, and the GPC is not funded by taxpayer dollars.

Koehler said the GPC didn't need the old driver's license office or the .6-acre parcel it is not purchasing. Koehler said the GPC will be 50 years old Aug. 1, 2010 and that it would be nice to have the ribbon cutting on the new facility then.

In other news, commissioners voted to table a proposal from the Tiftarea YMCA until county attorney Tony Rowell could clarify a few issues in the documents. County manager Jim Carter said the intent of the document was to “put together a strategic planning group” that would analyze what programs are offered by the Tift County Recreation Department and what programs are offered by the YMCA and “put a structure in place for some regular meetings.” Carter said the document was long and that some clarity was needed.

Commissioner Buck Rigdon said the issue might be settled by implementing a policy statement that basically stated that both agencies agreed to offer maximum services without overlapping programs any more than necessary.