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During the Troup County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday evening, the county discussed the budget for the Oakfuskee Conservation Center as well as actual and projected revenues for the event center.

Before the discussion, Caleb Hutchinson of Sheridan Construction presented the county with an award that the Oakfuskee project has received.

“It’s the AGC Field Georgia Award, which is something we take a lot of pride in,” Hutchinson said. “These awards are sought after in the state of Georgia, and I’m very proud to put my name in for this and Troup County. What this award recognizes is projects in the construction industry that showcase best efforts by commercial contractors.”

“It’s a testament to the overall project and the design and the input in the community and the safety that goes into it and really focuses on not just the building, but what it takes and then what the outcome is and how it’s used in the community,” Hutchinson said.

County Manager Eric Mosley went over the budget for Oakfuskee, noting that the event center is already meeting its goals of bringing in money to the county.

“When we brought this project forward, and we voted on SPLOST V, one of the goals was for this project not to become an anchor for the public as far as their taxes. So we set it aside to make this enterprise fund,” Mosley said.

The monthly cost to operate Oakfuskee is about $16,000 with an annual budget of $225,550.

Budgeted expenses include:

$48,000 for the salary of the Event Coordinator Anna Knight

$8,400 for water from the City of LaGrange

$40,800 for electricity from Diverse Power

$4491.72 for sanitation services from Amwaste

$17,230 for building and property insurance

$34,992 for grounds maintenance

$26,400 for building maintenance 

$4,800 for building repairs

$10,800 for pressure washing

$12,120 for internet from Kudzu

$1,200 for media (Youtube TV, Spotify)

$15,400 for pest control

For actual revenue, the event center generated $140,376.53 from December 2023 to June 2024, which includes $900 per month of ongoing rent from Chattahoochee Riverkeeper.

The estimated monthly revenue for the facility is $32,650, which Mosley noted is based on already contacted bookings for the event center.

“Right now, we’re well over $400,000 for the estimated annual revenue for this fiscal year,” Mosley said. “I certainly believe that the facility has done exactly what we said it would do.”

“It has made a big splash in our community and created a wonderful event space on West Point Lake, really the only large public space for events. This weekend, we had a wedding and a church, and then I believe Young Life was utilizing it, so there was a variety of utilization of the facility,” Mosley said.

“This facility is paying for itself in dividends and we are certainly excited about the years ahead. We’ve got bookings all the way down to 2026 and continuing to book daily,” he said.