By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
A recently announced agreement between Thomas More Prep-Marian and the Hadley Center has the Ellis County Commission rethinking locations for temporary office space during renovations at the courthouse and jail.
The commission had narrowed the list of potential of temporary locations to house the courthouse and Law Enforcement Center staff during reconstruction to the Hadley Center and the former PATH Lab on 13th Street.
Last week, TMP announced it has entered into a 10-month lease with the Hadley Center to house the girls’ residency program for 2014-2015.
The program will use the third floor, one of the floors identified as possible office space for county employees during construction.
Officials from the Hadley Center have suggested the county can use the second floor instead of the third.
Law Enforcement Center and courthouse staff, Commissioner Barbra Wasinger and County Administrator Greg Sund met by phone Friday afternoon with architect Andrew Pitts from Treanor Architects to discuss the two projects.
Pitts said they looked at the second floor but said it does not lay out as well for office space.
According to Pitts the PATH Lab does not need a lot of work done to it before the county moves in. The main project would be building space for two courtrooms on the upper level.
Staff had also asked about moving LEC staff into the courthouse after those offices are emptied with people moving to their new location at 718 Main.
Pitts said the benefit of moving everyone out is they do not have to keep an ADA-accessible entrance. He also said there will be some additional costs because of the delay.
He said he does not believe there would be a great deal of money saved by keeping staff at the building instead of moving them to another location.
Such a scenario also would force LEC staff to move twice. Wasinger and Sund both said they do not believe it would save any money to move them twice.
The commission is scheduled to discuss and possibly make a decision on the temporary location at tonight’s meeting.