Money for new buildings approved

Determining what to do with all of the county’s facilities and one lot is something the Sweetwater County Commissioners would like to address in the future.

During a recent Commissioners meeting, the Commissioners made a motion to approve spending $25,000 for the design and architecture of future buildings at the 7,200-square foot lot located at 36 Lagoon Road off of Highway 191 South.

The lot currently has a small sand and salt building located on it. The Commissioners discussed the possibility of building one or two facilities on the property.

One would be for Sweetwater County Road and Bridge and the other would be for the Sweetwater County Fire Department.

Prior to making this decision, the Commissioners listened to a presentation from human resources director Garry McLean about all the current facilities the county has. McLean said a facilities committee went through each building to take photos and determine the status of each building, while some were in great condition, like the new justice center others, such as the old Carnegie Library Building, are not in the best of shape.

Commission chairman Wally Johnson said the goal of the county is to try an centralize government entities similar to what was done with the justice center.

“We need to understand and support a goal,” he said.

He said they could use $25,000 to pay an architect to come up with designs for one or two facilities on the 36 Lagoon property. He said there isn’t a need for a budget amendment since the facility’s department has that amount in its budget.

“It’s the best location that we can possibly ask for,” Johnson said.

Commissioner Randy Wendling said this is the direction the previous Commissioners wanted to go and wanted to know how the new Commissioners felt.

Commissioner Jeffrey Smith said a lot of work has gone into this and being stewards of the county they need to continue to move forward.

Commissioner Roy Lloyd said to have everything in one place, such as tools, would be a benefit to the county.

Johnson said at some point the Commissioners will need to determine what they want to do with some of the existing and vacant facilities.

However, he said the more pressing issue is moving forward with the designs for that lot. The Commissioners agreed and made a motion and passed it to obtain an architect for the design portion of the project.