Salon building moves closer to use
Staff writer
A former beauty salon building that the county bought for $160,000 last June with the idea of moving the health department there is likely to be home to the road and bridge, emergency management, and planning and zoning departments.
The plan to move the health department there fell through after commissioners found out renovating the building for health department use would cost $693,700
At a meeting Tuesday, department heads Brice Goebel, Marcy Hostetler, and Sharon Omstead showed county commissioners their concept of how the building would work for their three departments.
Goebel said he and Omstead put their heads together to come up with the concept.
In the diagram, the 46 x 64½ foot building would have four offices for road and bridges, a shared area for road and bridges and planning and zoning, two offices for planning and zoning, an office for emergency management, a storage room, a work room, a kitchen and a conference room.
No estimate was given for cost to renovate the building into the design the department heads envision.
Goebel said an electric plan and lighting plan would need to be worked out, and the county should talk to a general contractor.
After reviewing the design, commissioners voted to have more detailed plans drawn up and presented to the commission at a later date.
The health department, meanwhile, still needs to find a new office.
Health nurse Krista Schneider told commissioners that road and bridges property might be used.
“We talked about that early on,” Schneider said.
Commission chairman David Mueller added: “We’ve been looking at a number of possibilities over the last year, and it’s kind of slid back.”
Schneider said St. Luke Hospital wants the two rooms that now house the department back, possibly by spring.
“We need a home,” Schneider said. “We need a home, and I don’t want it to get to the point there’s no home for us to be in.”
In other business Tuesday, commissioners:
- Discussed bridges in Peabody and Florence that neither the county nor the state want to repair and decided to meet with all entities involved for further discussion.
- Heard from Don Reimer, 819 80th Rd., about the condition of his road, which he had been working on until conflict arose with the road and bridges department. The road does not drain properly and is unsafe, Reimer said. Commissioners told him they would talk to Goebel, then told Goebel to go speak to Reimer.