Monday morning the Lowndes County Coroner’s Office got one step closer to a new home.
Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston signed the agreement closing the county’s purchase of the old Ecolab building on Lehmberg Road in East Columbus. The approximately 20,000-square-foot building will eventually house the coroner’s office, as well as an alternate command center for Lowndes County Emergency Management.
The coroner’s office is currently in the old Maxxim Medical building, located off of Yorkville Park Square off of Highway 69 South. New Hope-based Apex Ammunition is in the process of buying that building.
“We’re excited about closing,” Hairston said. “We’re going to start the process of moving the coroner over there.”
In February the county made an initial offer of $400,000 to Ecolab, and after negotiating settled on a price of $500,000. Ecolab ceased operations there in mid-2022.
District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks urged the board to quickly come up with a plan as to how Coroner Greg Merchant’s office will be shifted over to the new location.
“Now that we’re moving forward we need to be expeditious trying to develop that plan of action,” Brooks said. “This needs to be a priority. I’m saying that because there’s always something popping up.”
County Administrator Jay Fisher said planning was already in progress.
“We have done a walkthrough of the building to get our eyeballs on it,” Fisher said. “The next thing to do is the board needs to help me prioritize where (Merchant) needs to go and how to get it set up for him to operate as coroner.”
Fisher said he thought the back portion of the building needed to be carved out for storage of bodies.
“There are two warehouse areas, and the south side area has its own HVAC,” Fisher said. “It could be separately vented and all that from the front portion. There’s a hard wall that separates it from the office space.”
Also at Monday’s meeting the board formally requested that Apex allow the county to lease the space that Merchant’s office is in now.
The county and the city of Columbus have jointly owned the building for about 10 years, and agreed to sell it to New Hope-based Apex in December for $200,000.
The sale is moving into its final stages, and part of the deal includes leasing some of the building the coroner’s office is in back to the county until it can be relocated.
Monday morning the supervisors voted unanimously to formally ask Apex for that lease for a term of 12 months at a cost of $1 per month.
Hairston told The Dispatch after the meeting he expected the sale to close within the next couple of weeks. It has taken longer to get due diligence done than expected, he said.
“We’ve heard from their attorney they’re willing to close as soon as possible, and of course ‘as soon as possible’ sometimes takes a little longer than we all want or expect,” Hairston said. “It’s just been getting surveys done and making sure there are certain kinds of right of way because the shooting range is behind it.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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