Plans to build a new Department of Human Services building in Laurel took another step towards fruition Monday during a special working session of the Jones County Board of Supervisors.

Ronnie Clark, Jones County engineer, presented a land survey to the board that he worked on last week. One of the sticking points with the Laurel City Council, which the county is asking to donate the property, is that no formal request had been given.

In Friday’s edition of the Leader-Call, Andy Dial, president of the Jones County Board of Supervisors, said the county had not made an official request “because we have not yet really settled on anything.”

Now that the supervisors have formulated their plan, it will be presented to the Laurel City Council at the next possible meeting.

Ward 7 Councilman Trey Chinn has attended a number of recent county meetings, in anticipation of an agreement between the two parties. He requested Clark to appear before the council next week.

“What the county did this morning (Monday) was that they now have a plan to present to the city along with a legal description of the property as needed,” Chinn said. “The city can now go through the process of conveying the property to the county so that construction may begin.”

Clark said the survey answered a number of county questions including could the lot in question provide the necessary building requirements and parking space. While supervisors originally proposed a two to three-acre property, the land between Fred’s and Sam Creel & Associates in downtown is significantly less.

However, Clark said the property would be able to provide the 20,000 or so square footage that the county is looking for, if a three-story building were constructed.

Another issue, also debated by the Laurel City Council, is parking and whether constructing the DHS building would prohibit downtown vendors from having a successful business.

Clark said that while he was in the area, which is the site of the old Farmer’s Market, “there was only one car and it was parked there all day.”

“There’s no real impact on city traffic,” he said. “It does not impact any existing parking from a city standpoint. It’s not even striped for parking.”

“The property would provide for 107 parking spaces,” Clark added. “You said your target number was 120. On a random day, at the existing DHS building, they average 79 to 80 cars on average.”

Clark noted that there is a nearby lot of 32 parking spaces that could be dedicated for Fred’s and other downtown businesses. An additional five parking spaces are available on the street.

“There’s a parking lot across the street that is absolutely empty,” he said, adding that parking shouldn’t be a concern.

Clark said there would be certain tradeoffs in choosing this property over the other supervisors debated about offered by Wallace Drugs.

“This would be a multi-story, which means you would have to pay for an elevator and stairwell,” he said. “You will have to overlay and restripe the asphalt. But, you don’t have to bring in fill material and the grading would be minimal.”

Clark said the Wallace site was also “chopped up with an additional owner” and offered no adjacent parking.

After Monday’s meeting, the Jones County Board of Supervisors will now send a legal description of their needs to the City of Laurel.

Board president Andy Dial, who represents District 4, said council members should expect to receive that letter this week.

“It was always our intent to start with for the DHS building to be built in downtown Laurel,” Dial said. “That’s the area it looks like we’re going to be in right now.”

Dial said the county is now waiting for the Laurel City Council to act following receipt of that letter.

“We’re sending a request to them for the building,” he said. “That’s the main thing. After we hear from them, we’ll know where we’re at.”