Jones County Engineer Ronnie Clark will present the results of his preliminary survey of the two lots offered by the City of Laurel for construction of the new Department of Human Services building to the Jones County Board of Supervisors Monday.
Clark said the supervisors will hold a special working session at 9 a.m. Monday at the Jones County Courthouse in Downtown Laurel.
“It looks like this is a compatible sight,” said Clark. “I have not uncovered anything right now that says it won’t work.”
On Tuesday, the Laurel City Council approved a resolution to consider offering city property to Jones County for the construction of the proposed new DHS meeting. In a resolution presented by Ward Seven Councilman Trey Chinn, the city is offering the two parking lots located between Fred’s and Sam Creel & Associates in downtown Laurel.
Ward 3 councilman Tony Thaxton was the only one to vote against the resolution, stating that while he supported DHS being maintained in the City of Laurel, he expressed concerns about the building being moved back and forth from Ellisville. He said the DHS project was “being handled mysteriously” by county officials.
He noted that the county has never offered an official request asking the city to do anything.
“I’ve never seen a resolution,” Thaxton said Tuesday. “They’ve never submitted a request for any piece of property.”
City Attorney David Ratliff added that the city needed a legal description of what the county is looking for and what they need. Then the city would be able to take that legal description to Fred’s and Creel to see if they have any objections.
Ratliff also said he was “mystified” that the county has yet to do a proper survey of the property, noting that he hasn’t received a lot of answers.
“We have not made an official request because we have not really settled on anything,” said Board of Supervisor President Andy Dial. “They have not really shown a willingness to work with us on this.
“Now that they have OK’d the resolution, we can move ahead,” added Dial. “Our engineer is looking at the property and if he says everything is OK, we will call in the county attorney to make an official request to the city council.
“We want to get this issue settled,” said Dial. “It’s about trying to do what’s best for the citizens of Jones County.”
Clark said his task is to measure the downtown property and see how we can fit a building on it. The county has proposed to construct a 20,000 to 21,000-square-foot building, which is estimated to cost about $3 million. The county has received a $600,000 Community Development Block Grant for the construction of the proposed building.
County officials initially said from two to three acres was needed for the construction of the proposed building. However, Clark noted that the landed offered is about two acres or less.
“The two to three acres was needed if we were to construct the one story building as initially planned,” Clark said. “This downtown property will work, but we will probably have to go three stories.
“I will draw up some plans and have them ready for the supervisors to look at Monday,” he said.
Local News
Supervisors to receive prelim results of proposed DHS property
Presentation to be held Monday on Laurel sites
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