The Polk County Commission will hear reasons either for or against allowing for the Robinson’s to move forward with their goal to build an agriculture education center that can be used in a variety of ways in the future – and without local government support.

Sleeping R Ranch owners Glenn and Laura Robinson are asking the county commission to approve a change for five of 22 acres of land they own on Sardis Road to allow for the building of the center in the Fish Creek area.

They already have approval of Planning and Zoning for the project, which has been years in the making and started with a request from the county to fund a study on its viability, and has come up several times since without any widespread support from the city or county commissions or councils.

Fundraising efforts have been underway by the nonprofit Friends of Agriculture and other organizations and individuals since they’ve been unable to find the assistance they needed from local governments on the project.

Earlier this year Robinson asked for stakeholders to come together for comment on designs for the Agriculture Education and Natural Resource Center.

The other 17+ acres remaining of the property would be untouched by construction. The area around it would include Sardis Church, WDC Block and several houses around the Old Cedartown Road area.

Polk Today has reached out to Robinson for additional information about the project, but has not yet as of this posting received a return call about it. Robinson has run for the county commission twice and advocated the project during his campaigns.

The county will not be providing any financial or other support to the facility once built.

Commissioners will get to hear more about the proposal during a Public Hearing on the special land use permit for the Ag Center this evening during their work session starting at 5:15 p.m.

A final decision will come on Tuesday on whether to approve the permit during their 7 p.m. regular session.

Check back for more details about the project later this evening following the conclusion of the session.