A $2 million multi-purpose arena for Barnwell County is in the planning and financing stages but is not going to be funded by local taxpayers, announced local officials at a recent Barnwell County Council meeting.
Barnwell County Councilman Jerry Creech, when interviewed after the meeting, said the project has been in the “fact finding” stage for nearly two years by numerous interested people and will be the focus of the newly-revived Barnwell County Recreation Committee (which had been done away with in 2013). Their hopes are that the public/private project will be a huge economic boon to Barnwell County, bringing in visitors and providing opportunities for hotel/motels, restaurants, convenience stores and shopping.
Watson Lee Dorn III, an architect with the firm Johnson, Laschober & Associates of Augusta, Ga., presented architectural renderings of the project at the council meeting held Tuesday, April 10 before a standing-room-only crowd of supporters of the plan.