The 16th District soon will have a new district attorney. It may also have a new district attorney’s office.
The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors on Monday voted to hire Joey Henderson of JBHM Architects as a consultant to determine the cost of renovations that would be required to move the district attorney’s office from its current location at the County Annex building to the Waters Building, which the county purchased in June.
The Waters building is located on the southeast corner of Second Avenue North and Sixth Street, across the street from the courthouse.
The Waters building has 12,000 square feet of available office space.
“This is something we’ve talked about informally, but put aside until the outcome of the election,” said County Administrator Ralph Billingsley, who recommended the possible move. “As you know, Scott Colom won the election and we’ve talked to him and he’s agreeable to the move.”
Colom defeated incumbent D.A. Forrest Allgood in November’s general election. Allgood has held the office since 1989.
The county purchased the Waters building along with its adjacent parking lot in June for $250,000. The main attraction of the purchase was the parking lot, which the county would use to make up for the lost parking created by the new E911 center just east of the courthouse.
“Short-term, we really don’t have any plans for the building,” Billingsley said during the June board meeting. “At some point, we might want to put some county offices in there or lease out the space.”
The idea of moving the D.A. office to the Waters Building was an attractive option to the supervisors, who cited the poor condition of the County Annex building.
“I’m afraid to go on the second floor of the Annex,” Board President Harry Sanders said. “It’s in rough shape.”
If the estimates for the move are agreeable, supervisors seemed to think the best option for the current Annex building would be to demolish the structure and use the land for additional parking.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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