County Basketball Program "Could Be Cut Short"

Carroll County’s Rec. Department’s basketball program could suffer because of last month’s decision to not put the 2015 1-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum on the ballot in March 2012. Carroll County Recreation Interim Director, Lisa Loftin had hoped that new county-rec basketball facilities would have been included in a 2012 proposed package, and that those speculative funds could be accessed early. She says if the county rec department cannot come up with useable facilities, the county basketball program “could be cut short.” We only have one gym… a double gym and half of that is taken up by our gymnastics program,” she says. “We had been using Central Elementary but the floor is an issue. The kids can’t play on it so we have to look for other venues for basketball.”

Loftin says Caroll County Schools generously makes a facility in Whitesburg available for the Rec. Department, but it appears that all other gymnasiums in the county are being utilized. She says she is hopeful the 2015 SPLOST could make it to the ballots in 2013.