Deputy clerks plug away on computers, packing small boxes in their free moments. Meanwhile, it still is a public office, with customers coming in sporadically.
Amid the chaos, Circuit Clerk Haley Salazar is anxiously, and somewhat uneasily, awaiting the move to newly renovated office space. While it”s just down the hall, it might as well be miles away. The migration will be much more complex than packing and unpacking a few boxes.
The Lowndes County Courthouse is in the throes of a much-needed facelift. JBHM Architects just completed phase one of the renovation, gutting and remodeling the old tax assessor and administrative area for the circuit and chancery clerk offices. The tax assessor/collector office and administration moved to the old First Federal bank building on Main Street in July. The county purchased the building for $950,000 and spent about $500,000 renovating it for office space. The tax office also utilizes the drive-through already in place from the bank.
During phase two, contractors will expand the circuit clerk”s vault and create a new storage area for voting machines and evidence storage.
Voting machines and equipment, public-access computers, decades worth of marriage and docket books, and other files and court-stored evidence must be moved from the vault before it can be expanded. After the three to four weeks it will take to complete phase two, the materials will have to be moved again and reorganized.
“I equate it to living in a house while you remodel it and shifting from one room to another until it”s ready,” said Salazar, who took office in 1976, just after the last courthouse renovation in 1975.
Salazar”s new office space also adds an area for the county”s five election commissioners. Previously, commissioners used public terminals or borrows deputy clerk”s machines in between them helping customers.
“It”s going to be wonderful once it”s completed, but it”s not a move you can make all at once,” she said.
Salazar has 10 deputy clerks working at the courthouse.
Meanwhile, downstairs, at the chancery clerk”s office, workers also are preparing for their move.
Chancery Clerk Lisa Neese has five deputy clerks and two part-timers in her office.
“We have new desks, new carpet, new paint; we”re loving it,” Neese said of the new office space.
Lowndes County officials, for years, have expressed a need for additional space in the courthouse. One of the primary issues was storage space.
“I am the records keeper for the entire county; I need as much space as I can get,” said Neese, who has been in office since 1983. “It is going to help a lot. It”s going to be very nice.”
More space was “desperately needed,” Salazar said.
A new movable filing system, on which bids are out, also will help save space.
The final phase of the project includes replacing damaged masonry and retaining walls, painting the exterior and replacing damaged columns, said Joey Henderson of JBHM Architects.
“We also have begun work on the boardroom for the supervisors and also general work on the interior of the building,” Henderson said.
The close-quarters Board of Supervisors boardroom will be expanded to fit more community members and so presentations can be made comfortably.
The renovation also adds two holding cells, for a total of four, offices for the district attorney and public defenders and a lobby area for those waiting for court proceedings.
Currently, during circuit court terms, defendants line the halls of the courthouse, and attorneys confer with clients in the hallway.
The renovation is costing the county about $1.86 million.
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