VAN BUREN — Carter County officials are preparing to move the county offices into the former Main Street Market later this month.
The new building will be a more permanent, but still temporary location, until a new courthouse/justice center can be built.
The county’s historic courthouse and sheriff’s department/jail were inundated with flood waters in late April 2017 when Current River crested at a record high of 37.2 feet.
In May 2017, county offices moved into a rented building at 101 Highway W.
Additional county offices, as well as the sheriff’s department, were housed in three Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers at the site. The sheriff’s department recently moved into the Griffin Business Complex off of U.S. 60.
When the county moved into the Highway W building, Carter County Clerk Leona Stephens said, its rent was $2,500 per month, but we “didn’t have the back portion (of the building), just the front portion.”
Stephens said she got a grant to cover the cost of the additional portion of the building.
The rent on the building, she said, then was $3,000 a month until 2019 when it was increased to $3,750.
“(The owners) presented a new lease to my office” for 2020, Stephens said.
Rent was to be $6,000 for the first year and a minimum of a 10% increase for the second year, she said.
Presiding County Commissioner Ron Keeney, Stephens said, subsequently found the Main Street Market building, and “we agreed to move in there.”
The building, she said, is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Lanny Burke and located at 308 Main St.
Rent on the 8,500-square-foot building will be $3,500 per month, said Stephens, who indicated the courthouse had been more than 10,000 square feet in size.
At the commission’s Dec. 13 meeting, “Mrs. Tripp (owner of the Highway W building) came to the meeting,” Stephens explained. “She did not know about the increase. Her children had done that increase without her knowledge.”
Tripp, Stephens said, told the commissioners they could “continue to stay for $3,500 a month, but we had already committed to the other location.
“We had started building (offices) and had already contracted with (the Burkes).”
While the offer was late, “at least we (weren’t) kicked out at the end of the month. We can stay until we’re ready” to move.
The hope, Stephens said, is to make the move Jan. 15, but that could be delayed due to the building’s renovations.
Once a “big grocery store,” Stephens described the building as a shell.
“It was full of shelves and coolers,” said Stephens. “ … All that stuff has to be removed.
“He’s trying to sell it, but some of (the items) are still sitting there and we’re working around it.”
Walls will be constructed for the various county offices, Stephens said.
“They did regular walls for the court, which will be in the front portion of the building … walls to the ceiling and drywall,” Stephens said.
The remaining county offices, she said, will have temporary walls and cubicles, but those have not been erected yet.
The labor is coming from both county and private sources, she said.
“Some of the road and bridge guys are coming to help us out,” but “we had a real electrician come out,” Stephens said. “The stuff we could do, we’re doing.”
Stephens estimated the county will be spending between $20,000 and $25,000 for the renovations to the building. FEMA will reimburse the county for the cost of the materials, she said.
The cost of renovation “still keeps us under what we would have paid at $6,000 a month, and under the $6,600 by a lot,” Stephens said.
Once the renovations and move are complete, Stephens said, the remaining FEMA trailer will be sent back, and the county will no longer have the expense of those trailers.
FEMA, Stephens said, will continue to pay 75% of the rent of the county’s temporary facilities.
Stephens said the State Emergency Management Agency also will pay 10% of that cost, but only after the completion of a courthouse/new justice center.
“That’s a couple of years from now,” she said.
Carter County has received funding for an $8.6 million project, according to Stephens.
FEMA, she said, will pay 75%, SEMA 10% at the end, and the remaining 15% will be paid by a Community Block Development Grant (CBDG) through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“The longest part of this process is getting through the environmental studies,” Stephens said.
FEMA officials are finalizing their report at this time, she said.
CBDG officials, according to Stephens, also recently began their studies, which will take about 90 days.
“They had to wait for FEMA to finish,” Stephens explained. “They’ll use what they can from FEMA’s report, so they don’t duplicate, then do what they need that FEMA doesn’t require. HUD is stricter than FEMA.”
Nothing can be done on the project, she said, until the environmental studies are approved.
Once that happens, Stephens said, the project should be a go, and “we’ll not be waiting anymore.
“We can start getting our contractors, the property brought and the site work (done) and start on the building.”