The new Best Western hotel in Rutledge is finally open for business. Steve Smith, owner of the new hotel, said he was glad to finally be open to the public.

“It feels great,” Smith said. “We’ve already got people staying here and we’re taking reservations for future guests.”

According to Smith, the new hotel offers a variety of comforts and activities for its guests.

“We have 50 rooms including some with double queen and king size beds and we have two Jacuzzi rooms,” Smith said. “We also have an exercise room, a pool and we serve a continental breakfast.”

Aside from offering a place for people to stay for a few nights, Smith felt the hotel could also be something else for the community.

“I think this will bring a sense of pride to the community,” Smith said. “We’ve had nothing but great support from so many people in the community. The county commissioners, the city council, the mayor of Rutledge and many others have been great during the building project.”

While things have come together now, there were some problems in the initial building phase of the project.

“We had a hurricane come through when we were building and there were your usual problems that come up anytime you construct something like this,” Smith said. “But, all that’s behind us now and I want to focus on the future of what we’re going to offer the community.”

Rutledge mayor Joe Flynn also expressed his feelings about Best Western finally opening its doors for business.

“It’s great to see it finally open,” Flynn said. “We’ve been working on getting them here for about four years now and it’s wonderful to see it finally here.”

According to Flynn, there are still some details that have to be worked out with the hotel but he said things are moving along smoothly.

“It’s going to be about the first of November before they get their sign up,” Flynn said. “Once they have all the bugs in their system worked out we’ll start looking at other projects that we want to pursue in the community.”

According to Flynn, the opening of the new hotel will also be bringing some other opportunities to Rutledge that he felt will be a boost to the community.

“We’re going to be looking at getting a new water tank through a grant that this has brought about,” Flynn said. “Hopefully, the next project will be a new police department once we’ve got everything else worked out.”

Flynn echoed Smith in saying that many people in the community had been supportive of the project.

“We’ve had people in the community giving their support for several years concerning this hotel,” Flynn said. “We really appreciate all the support we get from the community and from other people when we try to put something like this together.”