Supervisors discuss offices shuffle as courthouse updates continue

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County supervisors and county department heads have been discussing temporary county office relocations as work continues on courthouse updates, meaning some of the offices may not be where people expect when they go to do business at the courthouse.

For example, construction crews need access to the room on the ground floor where the Veterans Affairs office is currently located. That space will become a break room and the veterans office will be relocated on the first floor once updates are complete.

The supervisors discussed the option of temporarily relocating the Veterans Affairs office to the office on the opposite end of the ground floor, which is currently being used as a construction office for the Samuels Group, the county’s construction manager for the law enforcement center and courthouse updates project.

Project superintendent Brian Shindelar said he doesn’t need to be in Charles City every day since the LEC was substantially finished, and he could get by without a designated office.

Other options mentioned were to temporarily relocate Veterans Affairs to office space at the Fossil and Prairie Park Preserve near Rockford, or in the Department of Human Services building that the county owns on South Main Street in Charles City.

The board also discussed temporarily relocating the County Recorder’s Office, which is currently located on the second floor and will be moving across the hall to the space now used by the clerk of court, which will eventually be moving to the fourth floor.

County Auditor Gloria Carr said construction crews need to core through the ceiling of the current Recorder’s Office to run plumbing for restrooms on the third floor, and other work needs to be done in that area.

Carr said the Recorder’s Office could temporarily move into her office and the supervisor’s board room, and she could work out of the general Auditor’s Office space.

No decisions on relocations were made Monday morning at the supervisors’ regular meeting.

Shindelar said it would likely be about July before everyone who was moving offices would be able to move into their new spaces.

The plan is for Veterans Affairs, currently the only county office on the ground floor, to move to the first floor. The Department of Human Services could also move to space on the first floor. Engineering, Planning and Zoning and Emergency Management would also remain on the first floor.

The Assessors Office, now on the first floor, would move into the current County Recorder’s Office on the second floor when the Recorder’s Office moves into the current Clerk of Court office on the second floor.

The County Attorney’s Office, now on the first floor, will move to the fourth floor, which is being remodeled now that the county jail and Sheriff’s Office have moved to the new law enforcement center.

Third floor would remain the district courtroom, which is a two-floor-high room that extends through the fourth floor.

The previous/current arrangement is:

• Ground floor – Veterans Affairs, assembly room.

• First floor – County attorney, assessor, engineering, planning and zoning, emergency management, Board of Health.

• Second floor – Treasurer, auditor, recorder, clerk of court, supervisors boardroom.

• Third floor – District courtroom.

• Fourth floor – Sheriff, county jail, magistrate court.

The new arrangement will be:

• Ground floor – Supervisors board room.

• First Floor – Engineering, planning and zoning, emergency management, Board of Health, Veterans Affairs, Department of Human Services.

• Second floor – Treasurer, auditor, recorder, assessor.

• Third flood – District courtroom.

• Fourth floor – County attorney, clerk of court, magistrate court.

Also at the supervisors meeting Monday, the board:

• Passed a resolution and ordinance making official the new voting precincts and supervisor districts in the county. No comments were made at a public hearing preceding the board vote

• Passed a resolution and ordinance officially renewing the 1% local option sales tax from Jan. 1, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2032, for the rural areas of Floyd County.