The short-term future of Oktibbeha County School District’s administrative home was decided Wednesday as supervisors voted 3-2 to temporarily split the Main Street facility between the upcoming Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District and Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency.
The move solves two problems immediately: What to do with the facility once the county school system merges with Starkville School District and how to solve overcrowding issues at OCEMA’s current home inside the Oktibbeha County Jail.
SOCSD is expected to take over control of its portion July 1, but reconfiguring the building’s top floor for E-911 operations could take at least six months, incoming OCEMA Director Shank Phelps said.
Such an overhaul isn’t as easy as moving terminals and flipping a switch, he said after the board meeting.
“We walked through the building earlier today, but I’ve still got to talk to AT&T about moving phone lines and with our own folks about possible equipment upgrades,” Phelps said. “We’re very excited about our new prospects. (Finding OCEMA a new home) has been a long time coming.”
The board voted 3-2 on the matter after District 3 Supervisor Marvel Howard pushed for new construction for the school district instead of providing perpetual rent payments.
As approved, the action does not call for new construction. Instead, supervisors said they will continue to discuss the matter internally and with school administrators in the future.
The most recent school merger bill — SB 2818 — orders the board of supervisors to provide SOCSD administrators office space, furnishings and utilities similar to what the county already provides OCSD.
How to satisfy the mandate split the board since it was adopted as supervisors eyed utilizing the property for other county needs — leaders even suggested rotating its own administrative home to the building, thereby alleviating capacity issues at the nearby circuit court annex — but no real proposal other than SOCSD’s desire to use the building emerged until yesterday.
Howard said it made more sense for the county to invest projected rent and utility costs — a combined $69,264 annual line item — into building a new facility instead of renting commercial property. He suggested supervisors use county-owned land and construct a 4,000-square-foot facility explicitly for SOCSD’s usage, thereby freeing up the larger Main Street property for other county agencies.
“(The requirements of SB 2818) are perpetual. That’s almost $1.38 million in 15 years for rent and utilities. If we take that same money and build a building, then we have a new, energy-efficient building. We could fund it and have the district sign it over to us so we own it,” Howard said. “At the end of the day, it’s a better use of taxpayer money to build rather than rent.”
District 4 Supervisor Daniel Jackson said he opposed the idea of new construction because of additional maintenance and upkeep costs the county could have to cover. Instead, the supervisors could follow the law by making monthly payments that SOCSD could “put into a building.”
“Here’s my problem: Their administration has a place now, and all we have to do is send them money. Why do they even have to move (from SSD’s administrative home at the Greensboro Center)? There’s nothing in that bill that says they need to move,” he said. “We’ve been saddled with this (by the Legislature), and it’s our problem. I don’t know why they can’t take this money.”
Howard said, “We keep saying ‘us’ and ‘them,’ but education is everyone. It’s our responsibility. The bottom line is we have to spend this money regardless of how we feel about it.”
District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer joined Jackson in opposition to the motion. Trainer advocated for new construction but said he had issues with limiting SOCSD’s space within the county education building.
Trainer and District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams both said they favored a plan that would attach OCEMA to a proposed public storm shelter on Industrial Park Road. The county owns land adjacent to the project site.
“My thinking is we’ve always had to build a building to make (consolidation) work,” Williams said. “We’ve been kicking this can down the road too long.”
He later adjusted his position on the issue when he said he prefers the county keeping any new construction for its own use.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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