By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
After weeks of discussion and with a deadline quickly approaching, Ellis County commissioners voted 3-0 Monday night to authorize the negotiation of a lease with the Hadley Center for temporary housing of courthouse employees:
The courthouse will be remodeled in phases starting with work on the jail and Law Enforcement Center followed by the other courthouse offices. The jail, LEC and courtrooms will remain in the courthouse. Other administrative offices will move to 718 Main Street, which also must be remodeled.
In comparing the final two options, first floor of the Hadley Center, 205 E. Seventh, and the long-empty Hays Pathology Lab on east 13th Street, Commissioner Dean Haselhorst said he had changed his mind and now favored the Hadley Center because “it’s move-in ready within the 30 to 45 days we’re going to need it. The Path Lab would need a lot of work.”
A recent examination of the lab building revealed mold in the eastern side of the basement.
Commissioner Swede Holmgren, attending his first meeting since breaking his left hip in late June, agreed.
“My thought is, the Path Lab has been in a dormancy, not disrepair. With water and the HVAC system not being used for several years and having to upgrade or replace those, and having to do some construction to get the building operational again, we’re going to have to do far less than that with the Hadley Center already being ‘move-in ready,” he said.
Commission Chairwoman Barb Wasinger asked Dave Van Doren, an owner of the Hadley Center, about a “lower price or refund” if the county doesn’t require a one-year lease of about 20,000 square feet, which is estimated at nearly $200,000. She asked what it would cost to lease “one floor for three months.”
Van Doren told commissioners the cost to rent space in the building is $13 a square foot per year. The cost for 6,000 square feet of space for three months would be about $65,000.
Holmgren asked Van Doren where jail pods — temporary prisoner housing — would be located.
“Nobody has talked to me about placement of jail pods,” replied Van Doren. He added there “could be room in the far east and far west parking lots.”
The Hadley Center has 281 developed parking spaces. Current tenants are using 110 of those. County Administrator Greg Sund said he counted 157 open parking spots during a survey last Friday morning at 10 a.m.
Remodeling of the jail and courthouse, along with construction of the new EMS/Rural Fire building, are funded by a half-cent sales tax approved by voters last year.