RINGGOLD, Ga. — Catoosa County has taken over business management of the Colonnade from the Catoosa Foundation for the Performing Arts to Catoosa County.

Catoosa Commission Chairman Bill Clark said the transfer, along with naming Tracy Breon as manager of the facility, provides “a continuity of management operations.”

Mrs. Breon has been events coordinator at the Colonnade for the past three years.

Since the 2001 opening of the $6 million Colonnade, operations and county supplemental funding have triggered heated discussions by commissioners.

Commissioners eventually asked the Catoosa Foundation for the Performing Arts to manage the facility — with its banquet rooms, a performing arts theater and Chamber of Commerce offices — with an initial annual subsidy of $125,000.

That funding level was later reduced to $105,000. About one year ago, commissioners voted to cut county funding to around $60,000 for the budget year ending Sept. 30, followed by a total phase out.

Catoosa commissioners in mid-April provided a 90-day notice to the foundation on canceling the management contract, but representatives from the county and foundation agreed to the management change on the earlier date.

Mrs. Breon is a native of Catoosa County. She is married to Andrew Breon and they have three children.

“My business experience involves 13 years of administrative duties with several large businesses in the Chattanooga area,” she said.