OKTIBBEHA COUNTY — Every time a master gardener dies in Oktibbeha County, the Mississippi State University county Extension office plants a magnolia in their honor at the Oktibbeha County Memorial Garden.
This tradition, though, will soon end.
Extension, along with a few other counties offices, is in the process of moving to its new location on Lynn Lane. While the agency is receiving a new bed to grow plants and flowers, it will not have the space or capability to plant the classic magnolias, master gardener Jim McKell said. The club has started moving what plants it can to the new office.
“The magnolias are just going to be gone,” McKell said. “That’s a shame. You can only do what you can do, but we’re going to attempt to save a few of them to put in other places.
“There are some real special things at the garden,” he added. “We had over 200 plants at the old location, and we are looking to see what we can do moving forward at the new location.”
Oktibbeha County purchased a new building in December to house some of its offices. The property, located at 48 Lynn Lane, is 10,820 square feet with 37 offices, two meeting rooms and a large corporate conference room.
Because of the need for additional room and the rundown state of the Felix Long Memorial Hospital property, where Extension is currently housed, Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors Attorney Rob Roberson said buying this property was the best solution, rather than buying land and constructing a building.
Along with Extension, the Oktibbeha County Department of Human Services, Child Protective Services and some offices within the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District (which are now located in the old Oktibbeha County School District office building on Main Street) will move to the Lynn Lane location. The offices have until May 31 to be out of their old buildings and into the new one.
“It’s rolling,” Roberson said. “Extension is in the process of moving and the school district will move in there toward the end of May.”
County Administrator Delois Farmer said the county has made improvements to the Lynn Lane building in order for it to be usable, such as implementing Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations. She said she does not know the current costs of the improvements because the county is still in the process of finishing them up.
After all offices have moved out of Felix Long, the county has plans to demolish the building, Roberson said.
McKell said while he knows this new building will ultimately benefit the county, the Memorial Garden will be nowhere near at the level it was at the Felix Long location. The old garden was 60-by-20 feet, but this new one is only 15-by-36 feet.
The garden will be located in the back of the building, rather than the front like McKell and the other master gardeners preferred. He said Farmer did not want the garden in the front because she was worried the gardeners would not maintain it.
Having the garden in the back results in harsh sunlight on the plants, McKell said, with half of the plants receiving light in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. Because of this, he said the gardeners will have to experiment this summer on which kinds of plants will survive in the garden’s location.
The gardeners will also not be able to have either of their two greenhouses at the new location, both of which they have given away. The gardeners have moved several plants over to Lynn Lane and will sell additional remaining plants at the Starkville Community Market on May 7 and 21.
While the gardeners may feel the new location disadvantages them, other offices are looking forward to the change.
Extension county agent Thomas Nyatta said the Felix Long building is falling apart, citing it has several issues, such as bathrooms that do not work well. He said he and the other Extension agents are excited to move into the new building and have more space to conduct work.
“We are very excited to move to the new building,” Nyatta said. “This building is just very old. It will take several days for us to move out, but (the new building) is a more modern building with good air conditioning and better bathrooms.”
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