Resident offers to donate animal collection
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Soudy Golabchi, a Martinez resident, would like to donate his collection of mounted big-game animals to the county for a museum. The collection includes this display of three lions bringing down a Derby Eland.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
Columbia County commissioners were shown a presentation complete with pictures of rhinos and tigers Tuesday night concerning a proposal to have an exotic animals collection donated for a county museum.
The collection, which includes 400 mounted animals and is valued at $10 million, according to Tuesday's presenters, is owned by Soudy Golabchi, a Martinez resident.
Gordon Renshaw, the director of the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce, told commissioners the possible donation provides a unique opportunity for the county to present a learning experience to children and others inside an interactive museum.
"This could be a very strong backbone to tourism in Columbia County," he added.
County commissioners agreed to have all options explored concerning a possible public/private partnership involving the costs of such a museum for the display.
"This is truly a fascinating and mind-boggling collection,'' Commission Chairman Ron Cross said, adding, "It's totally unique ... I think it definitely has potential to be beneficial to Columbia County.''
Marco Polo sheep are part of the 400-animal collection of Soudy Golabchi that he would like to donate to Columbia County for a museum.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
Exactly how much funding would be needed and how that money would become available for such a museum remains to be determined by a building and grant committee, to be headed up by the Chamber of Commerce, Renshaw said.
The animal collection includes everything from bears to elephant heads to wild sheep.
Golabchi says he has had interest in his display from some universities, but he said "my first choice (to donate to) would be Columbia County.''
In other action at Tuesday's commission meeting, commissioners decided to move forward with their own regional development authority and investigate tourism possibilities for the county's future.
Tuesday night's vote, which was unanimous, came after commissioners informally agreed at a Nov. 5 planning session in Atlanta that it was time for them to move on and seek other counties, such as McDuffie and Lincoln, to join in creating a new regional development authority.
Commissioners also voted 5-0 Tuesday night to formulate a proposal with the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce and Augusta Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau on how tourism should be promoted in the county.
The Tibetan Gazelle at the top of this display is a world-record part of Golabchi's $10 million collection.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
Cross said the inquiry will give commissioners an idea as to whether they should keep things as they are, with the Convention and Visitors Bureau promoting the county, or change to have the county partly or fully promote itself on its own.
Commissioners also voted to end a contract with Metro Augusta Clean & Beautiful and start their own group. The county already has an advisory committee and was sending $25,000 a year to Metro Augusta Clean & Beautiful to oversee programs such as Adopt-a-Highway and Adopt-a-Stream.
"We chose to terminate it (the contract) because of the peculiarities with the Clean & Beautiful program of Augusta," Cross said. Recent troubles with Metro Augusta have involved the resignation of Lillian-Katharine Blanos, the group's executive director, after a review of the agency's financial records.