As has been the case with many Warren County Board of Commissioner meetings of late, discussion during last week’s work session centered around the proposed new county library.
The commissioners initially approved building a $4 million, 13,379 square-foot facility last year, with plans calling for it to be built at the former A&P grocery store site.
Since then two commissioners – Ernie Fleming and Bill Davis – have come on board and, along with Chairman Clinton Alston, have delayed the project.
Last week discussion centered around moving the location of the structure and on a scaled-down version of the building.
Davis proposed a 10,500-square foot building at a cost of $1.5 million, but his proposal met with resistance because it did not include details of what would and would not be included, and what additional costs the county could incur after construction is complete.
Davis also proposed moving the construction to the area behind the Warrenton campus of Vance-Granville Community College, or to a site on Ridgeway Street.
Fleming, Ross and Richardson opposed this idea, saying they want to stay the course with keeping the proposed building at the A & P site, at least in part because the county has already bought that land.
An earlier proposal Davis made to move the site elsewhere in the town was derailed in December after the commissioners learned the site’s zone classification did not allow for such use.
The plan approved last year by the commissioners calls for a community meeting room, a basement, and enough space to move some county offices into the building.
Last week Ross proposed that the board stay with the original plans, but in the end the board directed the architectural firm of Ramsey, Burgin, Smith to come to the Feb. 5 meeting with a scaled-down proposal for the commissioners to consider.
This scaled down version is to delete the basement, shrink the community meeting room, and Davis also requested a smaller roof for the facility. The board discussed, but never came to a decision, on whether it would vote on Feb. 5 when the new plans are presented.
A number of other items were discussed during the Jan. 17 work session. Among those were:
• Establishing a construction and maintenance department to see if that would be more cost efficient than having to bid out small projects to private contractors when repairs and small jobs are needed.
• The idea of meeting with other agencies, such as the school board, on a more routine basis.
• A proposal by Eddie Mitchum, county tax administrator, to move his staff and offices to the former Capital Bank Building on South Main Street to, at least in part, make the office more accessible and convenient to county residents.
• The cost of repaving Rafters Lane, which goes by the jail, law enforcement center, animal shelter and ends in the parking lot of the Cooperative Extension Service.
The board ask County Manager Linda Jones to obtain cost estimates for this work.
• Health coverage for retired county employees with more th an 30 years of service to the county. Again, Jones was asked to gather information.
