Nearly three years of planning and seven months of construction came to an end as the Thomaston-Upson School System held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Upson-Lee Agriculture Center.
The facility, which includes a 10,000-square-foot show arena with seating capacity for more than 200 spectators, is specifically designed to be a multi-use area capable of holding various meetings, agriculture shows, and be a place where the system’s Future Farmers of America students can host regional and state events.
After an introduction by the Upson-Lee FFA Club, Superintendent Dr. Larry Derico welcomed guests to the new agriculture center. Georgia Department of Education Deputy Superintendent Dr. Barbara Wall spoke next and complimented the community on their support of agriculture education. Macey South, Emme Goen, and Molly Greer also spoke before the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Macey South, student president of Upson-Lee High School, commented, “We’ve just outgrown our barn. Now, just having this barn and having this space, we’re so excited to use it. It’s just perfect for our chapter.”
South added, “We can host livestock shows here. We have some pens where you can keep pigs and lambs, or you can get the pens out to hold cows. Not only that, but in the arena area you can host events like meetings, we can host farm days here, we’re able to have animals here, as well as workshops. The extension office is able to host any of their classes here. This is a multi-purpose building for anything from animals to just gathering people here for a meeting or celebration, so we’re really excited to be able to open it for anyone in the community.”
Josh Rabalais, the agriculture teacher at ULHS, echoed those sentiments.
“The multi-use aspect of it for me is pretty impressive. It’s primarily meant to hold livestock exhibitions and livestock shows, but even from the early meetings Dr. Derico and I had, let’s keep it multi-use, keep it where the community can use it. If someone wants to use it, rent it out for a banquet, we could have everything removable and set up round tables and hold meetings or banquets or anything like that.”
To that effect, Marc Ellington, director of operations for the Thomaston-Upson School System, spoke to the Upson Beacon about interest from various local entities wanting to use the facility.
“I've already gotten calls from other companies wanting to have regional meets here. I know that the Georgia State Patrol has reached out to have meetings here. We’ve had a lady in Griffin reach out that wants to have a dog show. We’ll have it on a rental schedule and be able to rent it out.”
ULHS Principal Ricky English commented that the facility is a place where students can “come in and work their livestock, learn life skills on how to raise them, and the responsibility of keeping up with animals. But what I’m most proud of is just the fact that we’re going to be able to host bigger events in this place where our kids can do on a much larger scale, because we’re going to have more schools able to come and participate.”
Derico highlighted the turnout to celebrate the grand opening of the agriculture center.
“We’re so excited to see so many people come out and celebrate this ribbon cutting and this grand opening. We appreciate all the community support in making this happen, and it’s just an exciting time for our students. We’re looking forward to them enjoying it. We’re looking forward to hosting some state and regional events here, and hopefully the entire community will benefit.”
Rabalais looked to the future as he spoke with the Upson Beacon.
“The facility is just perfect for it. It’s built for growth. It’s built for more students to be involved. When you build a place like this, that’s what you want. You want to project for growth, and I think that’s what we’ve done here with it.”
The new agriculture center takes the place of the former agriculture barn that was located beside the new one. Ellington said that the old building “has not been left to rot,” however.
“We kept the old ag building and turned it into a new grounds facility for our grounds and maintenance guys,” Ellington said. “We have got every piece of outside maintenance equipment under shelter and locked now for our grounds people. We’ve converted it and added some offices. It turned out really nice.”
Rabalais took a moment to thank everyone who had a hand in the process.
“I’m really appreciative to the school board, Dr. Derico, the architectural firm, Parrish Construction, and all the people that had a hand in it. The support of our programs from those people just means a lot.”
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