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In 1998, Upson County administrative agencies moved out of
the courthouse and other buildings into the recently renovated
three-building complex that once housed the R.E. Lee Institute.
Earlier, county voters had approved a special purpose local option
sales tax (SPLOST) to cover the cost of remodeling the school
complex and renovating the courthouse to make it ADA-compliant.
The R.E. Lee Institute was built in 1875 as a military school.
It later became part of Thomaston City School System as Lee High
School. A referendum to merge the city and county school systems
effective Jan. 1, 1992, was approved by county voters in Nov.
1990. After the merger, the old Lee High School was closed and
its buildings and grounds became surplus property. The school
board then offered it to the county, which needed additional
office space. Because the old high school was only two blocks
away from the courthouse, the county proposed to build an administrative
complex for joint use by Upson County and the city of Thomaston
if voters approved a $4.5 million SPLOST. In 1993 and 1994, the
General Assembly expanded the powers of the old Thomaston-Upson
County Office Building Authority created in 1964 so that it could
take necessary actions to finance the remodeling of the old Lee
High School. The new Thomaston-Upson County Government Administrative
Complex opened in 1998. Though jointly used, it is actually owned
by the county, with the city renting office space and paying
its share of the utilities.
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