Current plans, said Cherokee County Commission Chairman Phillip Jordan, include moving all county offices, including the probate judge’s office, revenue commissioner’s office, emergency management agency office and county commission office to the new building. The courthouse will then be renovated, and all court-related offices would be located there.
During a recent commission meeting, Cherokee County Extension Agent-Coordinator asked about the fate of her office, which is now located on the third floor of the Cherokee County Courthouse Annex. Glass said she understood from her superiors that the county is responsible for providing office space for the extension system office.
“We are certainly under a different impression,” said Jordan. “If you have something that says otherwise, we would be interested in seeing that.”
“We haven’t actually gotten to that point yet,” said Jordan. “It is the commission’s intention to move the county offices to the administrative building, the court-related functions to the courthouse once it is renovated and the non-county agencies will be expected to find a place to locate. It will take us several months or a year to do that, a year being construction of the administrative building and the courthouse renovation after that. I would say it would be a minimum of a year and probably more.”
Other offices are concerned about their futures as well, according to reports, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, Alabama Forestry Office and the drivers license officer are located in the Courthouse and Annex. Bids are expected to be let in 30-45 days.
Jordan assured that an office, which is displaced by the move, will be given ample time to re-locate.
On another matter, the commission is re-thinking plans to air condition the Cherokee County Historical Museum, located adjacent to the Cherokee County Courthouse. The commission agreed to look into the matter during a previous meeting after receiving a request from a person affiliated with the museum to do something about the ventilation system.
County Administrator Bob McCleskey, after meeting with air condition professionals, did not feel it would be feasible to air condition the entire building.
“They said it would take metal ceiling panels, there is no insulation,” said McCleskey. “The building is roughly 57 x 93 x 14 which comes to 74,000 cubic feet to air condition.”
McCleskey said he also spoke to Bob Minnix, director of the museum, who said the electric bill from air conditioning the entire building would be too much for the museum to bear.
There is an office located inside the museum which is air conditioned, McCleskey said, where museum employees can stay when they are not waiting on customers.
Jordan agreed to meet with museum representatives once again before proceeding further with this project.
The commission also approved a request by Cherokee County Sheriff Larry Wilson to place Doug Machleit on the county payroll as a part-time employee to work with the drug dog and Cherokee County schools. His salary will be paid out of pistol permit fees. It is approved.
In other business, the commission:
*met with Jerry Baker of WEIS Radio Station and agreed to purchase Salute to Local Seniors ads for $175.
*approved an excess land sale of $713.63 to Donna Bohannon.
*approved signing additonal paperwork concerning the $750,000 federal grant the county received through Cherokee County Water Authority a few years ago for sewer enhancement projects through EPA.
*heard a letter from East Alabama Planning and Development Commission and agreed to apply for grant funds to obtain a new van for the Cherokee County Transportation program. The county will not be eligible until the 2004 fiscal year, Jordan explained, but is required to take action now to begin the process.
*approved a proposal from the Cherokee County Alcoholism/Substance Abuse Council to provide drug and alcohol screening to randomly selected county employees as provided in the personnel policy
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