May 9—Whitfield County could soon add a fifth FIFA-sized soccer field.

FIFA is an international governing body for soccer.

The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 Monday to approve a $1.725 million contract with Momon Construction of Calhoun to build the field at Westside Park. Commissioner Robby Staten was absent, and Chairman Jevin Jensen typically votes only if there is a tie.

The soccer field will be funded from the county's share of the four-year, $66 million 2020 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) approved by county voters.

The county had no FIFA-sized fields before 2022 but four opened last year.

The city of Dalton used about $7.075 million of its share of the 2020 SPLOST to build two FIFA-sized soccer fields at Heritage Point Park. The county's Riverbend Park also hosts a FIFA-sized soccer field. and one such field is on the campus of Dalton Junior High School and The Dalton Academy.

The commissioners also voted 3-0 to:

—Accept a $125,000 contract with McCormick Solutions of Atlanta to do a complete audit and update of all commercial and industrial properties on the county tax digest.

Jensen said the county had previously signed a contract with another company to do that work but it had not performed the work. He said the county did not have the ability to do the work in-house.

"We need to get this done," he said.

—Reappoint Robert Chiddester and Gail Junkins-Noles to six-year terms on the Board of Tax Assessors.

—Approve a $48,000 contract with the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission in Rome for planning and zoning staff work.

—Approve a $94,897 contract with the University of Georgia Extension Service for county extension agents.

The commissioners also held the first reading of proposed changes to the county planning and zoning ordinance. Jensen said all of the changes are mandated by a law recently signed by Gov. Brian Kemp and deal with matters such as notification of rezoning requests and appeals of rezoning denials. He said the county ordinance already incorporates many of those protections.