COLUMBUS — Construction on a new, larger Lowndes County Health Department likely will begin within the next few months, JBHM Architect Joey Henderson announced Friday.
Crews in November may begin work on the estimated 12,300-square-foot health department near the intersection of Lehmberg and Warpath roads in East Columbus, Henderson said during a county Board of Supervisors meeting.
“We will advertise bids for the project on Oct. 1 and 8, and then we will come in to present bids and our recommendation to the board on Nov. 2,” Henderson said. “We are planning on about nine months on the job, but six or seven months is probably how long it will actually take to get it built.”
If construction begins in November, the about $2.7 million project could be completed by June 2010, Henderson said.
Once completed, the department will replace the more than 50-year-old current facility on Military Road.
The new building, the front of which will face Lehmberg Road, will feature 49 patient and 32 staff parking spaces, an 80-person main waiting room, and two 37-person sub-waiting rooms, Henderson explained as he presented designs of the facility.
“The cost estimate is about $2.7 million, which is still well within the budget,” Henderson said.
Because the county previously secured a $600,000 Mississippi Development Authority Community Development Block Grant for the project, the construction, land costs and other expenses likely will come with about a $2.4 million price tag, according to county officials.
The project will be funded through a portion of the county”s projected $4.8 million in interest accrued from the sale of Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.
In 2006, the hospital was sold to Baptist for $30 million; prior to the sale, Baptist had leased the facility from Lowndes County on a 50-year lease, which began in 1993.
The funds have been building interest in a certificate of deposit account at Regions Bank. Until this year, the money was growing at a 5.12-percent interest rate; the rate currently is about 3 percent. Supervisors have not dipped into the principal.
The supervisors placed $4.1 million of the interest earned since the sale in an interest-bearing account in February; its interest was 5 percent and now is at 2 percent.
“You are just approving the concept today,” Henderson told the board. “We will still have a lot more meetings with the Health Department staff to continue to get their input as we move forward.”
In other business, the board:
n Accepted an $11,800 bid from Columbus-based Bryan Brown Architects to complete interior work on a proposed Lowndes County administration building near the corner of Main Street and 12th Street North.
Lowndes County officials are working to purchase the vacant former Galloway-Chandler-McKinney Insurance building to house the county”s tax and administrative offices.
The architectural firm will complete several interior renovations at the building to make it better suited to house the county offices, explained County Administrator Ralph Billingsley.
Once the renovations are completed, the county officials could move into the building by “sometime next year,” Billingsley has said.
n Granted Lowndes County Sheriff Butch Howard the authority to enter into a contract with the North Atlantic Security company for security services at the county”s Justice Court building on Bell Avenue.
The private security company likely will begin working Sept. 3, and will replace a full-time sheriff”s deputy currently stationed at the courthouse, Howard explained.
Because the contract is considered a professional service, county officials were not required to put the job out for bids. Privatizing the security could save the county as much as $20,000 every year, according to Howard.
“North Atlantic won”t have arrest power, but they will be able to detain someone until we can get someone over there to make the arrest,” Howard told the board. “The constables are usually over there on court days, and there are always several law enforcement officers in there testifying when court is in session.”
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