Commissioners Are Asked To Consider Adding New Building Space for County Planning Department to New Health Center Building at the Airport Park
By Sid Riley
The burning desire to build has apparently not died in the hearts of some County Officials. At Tuesday’s meeting of the Jackson County Commission, County Health Director William Long appeared before the Commissioners to discuss how to proceed in the development of architectural plans for the new Health Center Building. He was responding to a request made by County Manager, Ted Lakey regarding the County’s desire to move the County Planning Functions out of their aging facility on Highway 90, into new building space.
Instead of building a stand alone building, Lakey was evaluating the possibility of merely adding the needed square footage to one wing of the new Health Center Building. The point being made by William Long was that he was about to begin working with the architects, and if an alternate sets of plans are to be made, additional architectural planning costs will be incurred. He wanted the board’s approval to proceed on that basis.
The proposal seemed to be met with a cool reception from the Commissioners, with questions of costs being raised. Commissioner Branch said that he would never approve anything without first knowing the cost to the County. Lakey was instructed to bring a specific proposal with projected costs to the board for approval before any costs are incurred in this matter.
Lakey’s reasoning for making this request of William Long was based on the fact that the existing Planning facility is over fifty years old, is experiencing several structural problems, and is nearing it’s useful life. It will have to be remodeled, or torn down within a few more years, some believe. If a new building is to be built, it would be less expensive to add this relatively small need to an existing project instead of building a separate building.
The burning desire to build has apparently not died in the hearts of some County Officials. At Tuesday’s meeting of the Jackson County Commission, County Health Director William Long appeared before the Commissioners to discuss how to proceed in the development of architectural plans for the new Health Center Building. He was responding to a request made by County Manager, Ted Lakey regarding the County’s desire to move the County Planning Functions out of their aging facility on Highway 90, into new building space.
Instead of building a stand alone building, Lakey was evaluating the possibility of merely adding the needed square footage to one wing of the new Health Center Building. The point being made by William Long was that he was about to begin working with the architects, and if an alternate sets of plans are to be made, additional architectural planning costs will be incurred. He wanted the board’s approval to proceed on that basis.
The proposal seemed to be met with a cool reception from the Commissioners, with questions of costs being raised. Commissioner Branch said that he would never approve anything without first knowing the cost to the County. Lakey was instructed to bring a specific proposal with projected costs to the board for approval before any costs are incurred in this matter.
Lakey’s reasoning for making this request of William Long was based on the fact that the existing Planning facility is over fifty years old, is experiencing several structural problems, and is nearing it’s useful life. It will have to be remodeled, or torn down within a few more years, some believe. If a new building is to be built, it would be less expensive to add this relatively small need to an existing project instead of building a separate building.
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