With the new West Side Annex complex at 101 Boundary Street now move-in ready, for the first time in nearly 25 years, many of Columbia County’s government offices, as well as the state revenue and auditor offices, will have a new address.
The relocation process began Wednesday morning -- the last day of open business at the S. Court Square Annex Building. The majority of the move is expected to last through the end of the week.
“We’re hoping for everything to be moved Thursday and Friday, and possibly into the weekend,” said Columbia County Judge Larry Atkinson. “We chose this time because Monday is a holiday. That way, it leaves us an extra day for anything unexpected.”
The state revenue office will be housed in the northern, red-roofed building at the Boundary Street space, while the Columbia County Assessor, Tax Collector, and Treasurer offices will occupy the larger, separate portion of the former West Side Elementary School. Once moved in, both the revenue office and the auditor’s office will pay monthly rent to the county of $1,100 and $250, respectively.
Three rows of parking slots are also expected to be striped in front of the new annex property in the coming days. The Columbia County Clerk’s Office is also set to move into the county side of the complex, but that relocation is not scheduled until March or later.
The new government complex is located roughly 0.75 miles west of the Columbia County Courthouse in Magnolia. Boundary Street is accessed by veering southwest from W. Main Street, as it transitions to U.S. Hwy. 371.
In total, the project has a pricetag of approximately $1.18 million. The 15-acre former kindergarten property in February 2017 was purchased for $253,500 from the Magnolia Public School District. The primary gutting and refurbishing of former school began in July 2018, after a final bid of $908,116 from Coker Building Company of Texarkana was approved by the Columbia County Quorum Court. In August, an additional $18,000 to clean, seal, and paint the building’s exterior, was accepted, bringing the project’s total cost to $926,116.
“The only thing left from the school are the walls and the concrete floors,” Atkinson added. “It has all new flooring, ceilings, paint, wiring, ductwork, and HVAC.”
Signage and office labeling are expected to be placed at the West Side property to help navigate among the new offices. Besides the larger space and a virtually new building, furnishings at the West Side Annex are brand new as well. Only personal belongings or desks, as well as tech equipment and records, will be transferred from the old building. Among the improved safety features -- such as better escape routes in the event of a violent episode -- the tax collector’s office also now contains bulletproof glass at each teller station.
The offices, both county and state, are also all still located within short proximity to one another.
“All of the offices are still going to be closely located,” said Columbia County Treasurer Selena Blair. “If anyone needs something from the revenue office, they don’t have to drive across town. The [West Side] facility gives us room to grow if we ever need to build more.”
Real discussions among the Quorum Court’s Building Committee on exiting the downtown Magnolia Annex Building date back at least to 2016. Past discussions fixated primarily on roofing issues and the sheer age of the building as primary needs for a new home for the revenue, Tax Collector, Assessor, Treasurer, and Tax Collector offices. According to Columbia County tax records, the 11,600 square-foot former First National Bank that the downtown annex occupied was constructed in 1960.
The bank was specially deeded to building to the county in March 1996, according to Columbia County real estate records. Before the move into the former bank, the Columbia County Treasurer and Assessor’s offices were located inside the Columbia County Courthouse, while the revenue office was located along S. Jackson Street.
A larger, estimated $2.4 million layout plan for the West Side Annex had been desired in early 2017 by the Quorum Court Building Committee, but budgetary precautions later caused the more elaborate layout to be set aside for the smaller, less expensive build. The site was proposed as a two-phased, “pay-as-you-go” approach since the county did not possess all of the estimated funds at the time.
The more expensive, more expansive plan would have seen construction additions to the former school that included a quorum court chamber, new voting areas, and an office for the county judge to go along with the plan just finished.
The secondary phase could still take place down the road, officials have said in the past, but for the time being, nothing has been proposed in recent months. For now, though, Annex business, as usual, begins again Tuesday, only not in downtown Magnolia, but instead at 101 Boundary Street.
