Photo: Newly-elected County Mayor Randy Geiger, foreground, along with Committee members Chuck Elizondo, Rita Gean, Patrick Burns, Marty Visser, Maintenance Supervisor John McElroy, Tater Hayes. Shannon McFarlin photo.
By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–The bulk of Monday’s meeting of the Henry County Buildings and Grounds Committee was spent working on development of an exit plan for county offices from the courthouse annex. As has been reported several times previously, the annex is in deteriorating shape and a structural engineering report recommended vacating the structure.
The Courthouse Annex on W. Washington St. was originally the Crete Opera House and was built in 1899.It currently houses the Juvenile Court, County Trustee, Register of Deeds and County Tax Assessor’s offices.
Earlier in the meeting, the committee appointed Register of Deeds Pam Martin to be a member.
Committee Chair Marty Visser noted how bad of shape the annex building is in and said finding a new location for the offices located there is a top priority.
In discussion with Maintenance Supervisor John McElroy, committee members discussed various scenarios to meet the needs, both temporarily and permanently, of county offices, with most members agreeing the courthouse should house all the court offices, including the juvenile court, and the remaining county offices should be housed together in a location to be determined.
Locations discussed included the county-owned TRC building on Hwy. 79 (next to the driver’s license/county extension office building); the current health department (which will be vacated once its new building is constructed); and construction of new facilities on county-owned property.
Martin said, “It would be great if we were all together again, like we were before, but we better do it fast. Time will go by in the blink of an eye and we need to be ready with a plan.”
Commissioner Rita Gean said whatever is done needs to be done soon. “I don’t think we need to put our people in jeopardy.”
Clerk and Master Albert Wade said he is still working on the application for a $250,000 grant which has a deadline of August 31 (and is a 90/10 matching grant).
Newly-elected County Mayor Randy Geiger said the reason he ran for County Mayor in the first place was because “people have been kicking the can down the road and we need to start looking at a compressed schedule.” (Geiger will be sworn in as County Mayor on August 19).
The next meeting of the committee was set for 5 p.m. August 20, and county offices will be asked to present their space needs—on both a temporary and permanent basis—for the committee to evaluate.
In other business:
–Visser reported the location for the new health department has been changed again to the south side of Kelly Drive.
–Commissioner David Webb asked that as the committee considers renovations to the courthouse clock tower that it consider replacing the ornamentation that used to be around the tower. He said it could be replicated in fiberglass. He also asked that the committee consider replacing the balustrade that once was a feature of the courthouse structure.