County commissioners to vote on Forsyth Tech airport lease
Concept art for Forsyth Tech Aviation Career Development Center
Today, Forsyth County commissioners plan to vote on Forsyth Technical Community College’s lease at the airport, construction of the Lowrance-Paisley schools and Sunday morning alcohol sales.
An Aviation Career Development Center at Smith Reynolds Airport was one of the projects in Forsyth Tech’s 2016 bond referendum. The commissioners are scheduled to vote on leasing three acres of land at the airport, which the county owns, to Forsyth Tech. The college will then build and run the aviation center, where students will learn how to work on the mechanical body of planes.
Last week, the proposed 40 year lease was 35 cent per square foot or $45,738 annually. That may change as county commissioners wanted to see if that could be negotiated down a bit with the Airport Commission, which runs the airport, since Forsyth Tech will be using the funding it gets from the county to pay the lease.
Airport Director Mark Davidson said it’ll be a very beneficial program that will give tenant businesses at the airport the trained workers they need.
“It’s a great marriage for the airport, Forsyth Tech, the county and our tenants at the airport,” Davidson told commissioners in a briefing earlier this month.
A school bond project that’s up for a vote is the replacement schools for Paisley IB Magnet School and Lowrance Middle School, which will be built together on Paisley’s campus. Money for the early phase of the project was already approved. Today, commissioners will vote on approving $47.6 million for construction and completion of the school. The new building will expand Paisley’s capacity from 627 students to 1,027 students. Lowrance is a special needs school currently housed at Atkins Academic and Technology High School due to toxicity concerns at its old campus. Once completed, Lowrance-Paisley will have the largest square footage of any school in the county.
Among the many other items in today’s 2 p.m. meeting, commissioners will vote on allowing restaurants in unincorporated areas of the county to sale alcohol on Sundays starting at 10 a.m., which is two hours earlier than currently allowed.
The General Assembly recently gave local governments this option, and Winston-Salem recently passed a similar ordinance that went into effect on Sunday.
