Lauderdale County supervisors are weighing their options and getting feedback from other county officials after receiving two proposals to add a door to the Circuit Clerk’s office in the new government center.
The door, which was omitted from the original building plan, is needed for members of the public to enter the Circuit Clerk’s office for business unable to be handled through the front window. The entry is also needed to help with absentee voting, which needs to be secure and cannot be done in the main hallway of the government center like other county business.
County Administrator Chris Lafferty said supervisors have two options to consider. The first, which is the more expensive of the two at $76,109, installs a door next to the Circuit Clerk’s window area, eliminating some storage space but leaving the neighboring Election Commission’s space alone.
The second option, at $44,337, uses a hallway for county employees for the entry point and would require sacrificing some of the Election Commission’s area, Lafferty said. The second option would also require adding an additional key fob entry system, he said, which would be an additional cost.
“This does include a little bit of the security badge readers, but it does not, for some reason, include the security access to the far end,” he said. “So there will need to be a change order if you vote to go with the hallway entrance just because currently that far door does not have a card reader on it.”
Supervisor Craig Houston, who joined the board in January after the government center was built, said issues with the new building are frustrating. With the amount of money the county spent on the project, he said, these issues should not be happening.
“If we make the kind of investment that we made on this building on any other building, we shouldn’t have the issues that we’re having,” he said. “You’re going to have hiccups when you build something, but this is just ridiculous.”
While the county works to address the door, Houston, along with Supervisor J.J. Anders, have also been working with Election Commissioners to address a lack of storage space in the new building. The commission does not have the secure storage necessary to keep all of its voting machines and equipment under lock and key.
Both the Circuit Clerk and Election Commission have yet to move from the old courthouse on Constitution Avenue as county officials work to address the issues.
Houston, Anders and Supervisor Joe Norwood Sr. all agreed it is time to move forward with a solution to the door problem but voted to table the proposals until the board’s next meeting. With supervisors Kyle Rutledge and Josh Todd absent, the three supervisors concluded the best course of action is to get the input of the Circuit Clerk’s office and bring the proposals up for a vote before the full board later.
In other business, the Board of Supervisors:
— approved applying for a Small Rural and Tribal Body Worn Camera grant through the Department of Justice.
— approved advertising for bids for an equipment shed at the new maintenance facility.
— authorized a new contract with Tri-State Consulting Services Inc. for appraisal and tax mapping services at a cost of $243,000 over the four-year term.