The  Tifton Downtown Development Authority (DDA) voted Tuesday to retain the facade of one of two buildings slated for  demolition on  Commerce Way to create a parking area.

The DDA decided to pay the additional $63,404 estimated cost to keep the front of the vacant structure at 327 Commerce Way, owned by downtown businessman Jack Stone and built in 1908. The state has determined the structure to be of "historical significance." 

	Artist's rendering of Commerce Way facade with new parking area behind it.

Because of that finding, the city has already agreed to document the building with photographs and to erect an "interpretive display,"  or kiosk, at the site to note its history.

The DDA plans to save the front wall of the building along  Commerce Way when the rest of the building, and one next door, are razed for additional downtown parking. Tifton has lost much of its history, and this would be a way to save a small part of it, DDA members say.

Earlier this summer, the DDA hired  Bret Henderson of Henderson Structural Engineering to assess the  feasibility of saving the  front-facing wall. Henderson said the  brick facade could be retained   with strucutral steel braces helping to support it. The facade would be a  pedestrian gateway into the proposed  parking lot.

City Manager Pete Pyrzenski told the DDA on Tuesday that after reassessing all costs involved, the city estimates the additional cost to keep the facade would be $63,404, plus or minus 20 percent. The sense of Tifton City Council is that the DDA would need to shoulder that cost if it wanted to keep the building's front, Pyrzenski said.

The city received a $376,887 Community Development Block Grant  for the parking project that  includes  razing the building under discussion along with the adjacent  building at 325 Commerce Way currently occupied by Davy Davis' music shop. The city's portion of the parking project is $113,732. With retaining the facade, the DDA's portion now totals $133,404.

Tiftarea Academy Football Coach Erik Soliday regaled the Rotary Club of Tifton with stories from his coaching career Wednesday at the club's weekly meeting. Soliday said he has a good team at Tiftarea with good, coachable student athletes. 

This is his first year coaching at a private school; Soliday said the biggest difference from coaching at a public school is the fewer number of players available, prompting many of his athletes to play both offense and defense. But he said football is football and still requires the basics.

Soliday said he is happy at Tiftarea Academy and that it is a great environment.

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