The home isn”t in disrepair. But it certainly shows its age.
Built in the 1940s, the bungalow on Third Avenue North in Columbus across the street from Franklin Academy, has housed the Lowndes County office of the Mississippi State University Extension Center since the mid-”70s.
Last week, the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors moved toward relocating the office into the former Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau, at the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Development Authority offices on Seventh Street North.
“Them moving us is a good thing,” said Jeff Wilson, area horticulture agent and interim director of the Lowndes County Extension Center. “We are appreciative that they”re moving us to a better building.”
For supervisors, it”s an opportunity to pretty up the property.
“We can actually move into that spot at very, very little cost to the county and at the same time clear this (building) off the property and improve the property, add parking and so forth,” said Ralph Billingsley, county administrator.
The county would pay $700 a month, including utilities, to rent office space from the waterway development authority. Over the past year, the county has paid $4,100 in utilities alone, for the Extension Center office.
“It”s an older house. The heating and cooling in this house is not very good. It takes a lot of money in upkeep,” Wilson said.
Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders also noted the building has had roofing issues and problems with termites.
“It needs extensive repair,” he said.
Supervisors agreed last week to allow Billingsley to work on a lease with the waterway development authority.
“It”s more room, and it”s just in better shape,” Billingsley said.
The space on Seventh Street has a kitchen, meeting room, storage area and at least three offices, to accommodate the Extension Center”s three full-time employees.
And the old house?
It will be the last thing standing in the way of about 10-15 extra parking spaces for the Lowndes County Courthouse. The county likely will take offers for someone to demolish it, at no cost to Lowndes County, and salvage it to sell as scrap material.
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