Lake Hartwell manager Anthony Rabern of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said the department is ready to award the construction contract.

“We just received a new set of plans,” Rabern said. “The old ones were revised. We have also selected a contractor and that is Simpson Construction out of Gainesville, Ga.. They do have experience in building these types of facilities. They completed one for us on Lake Lanier so we’re excited to have them working on this project.”

Simpson made the lowest bid of $1.526 million, which is higher than the county had expected.

In 2007, the county received some $900,000 from the Lake Hartwell PCB settlement and has already spent part of that money to put in the concrete ramp. However, the rest of the project, including parking, has yet to be completed. At this week’s county commission meeting, county manager Frank Ginn broke the news to the commission.

“I told Anthony that yes, our board is interested in the project and moving it forward, but if you’re asking for this county to come up with the $750,000 that you’re short, I don’t think they got it,” Ginn said.

Franklin County is facing a $1.5 million budget shortfall this fiscal year, but Rabern said he doesn’t expect the county’s budget woes to affect construction of the ramp. He said there are other ways the county can contribute.

“The bids are high. They did come in higher than what we have available funding for, and we thought that would do that. We hope Franklin County can provide some in-kind services. We’re looking forward to sitting down with the Franklin County leadership and develop some kind of partnership. We’re very, very close to putting some things on the ground very soon,” Rabern said.

Rabern said he plans to meet with the county in the coming days to go over what kinds of services the county can offer to offset the cost of construction. He said officials hope to begin work on the ramp itself by October.