By Jessie Burchette
jburchette@salisburypost.com
Rowan County commissioners and top Rowan-Salisbury school officials will hold a special session Friday to focus on plans for a central administration building.
County commissioners and school officials appear to be leaning toward building a new structure on school property on Old Concord Road, rather than upfitting a former grocery store building on Jake Alexander Boulevard.
School officials may want the project to go forward on a much faster track than commissioners are ready to commit to. Under that plan, the county and the school system would split the cost 50-50.
A top school official recently sent an e-mail to county commissioners chastising them for wanting to wait until the February retreat to decide on the central office projects.
Gene Miller, assistant superintendent for operations, said the delay until the Feb. 25-27 retreat “is just one more delay in what has become a long series of delays.”
Miller also cited the potential savings in building costs and low interest rates if the county acts quickly. “My point is simply this, now is the right time to take some action,” Miller wrote.
If the board doesn’t take action at this time, he asked, “what do you suggest we do with the 66 people working in the Long Street building that contains structural issues?”
Although commissioners have indicated support for the central office project, Chairman Carl Ford said the county needs to look at its overall financial situation given the current recession, and must deal with creating new jail space under pressure from the state.
The Miller letter and its tone apparently irked some commissioners.
Ford said recently that he talked with Dr. Judy Grissom, superintendent, about the Miller letter. Ford said Grissom apologized.
Commissioners heard a feasibility study at the Jan. 5 session focusing on converting the former Winn-Dixie building to house school administrators now housed in five buildings at four different sites.
The board also looked at an impromptu plan to build a new structure on school and county owned property. That scenario appears to be less expensive than buying the Winn-Dixie building, adding a two-story addition and doing extensive renovation.
The meeting will be at 2 p.m. on Friday in the Cohen Administrative Office Building. Although the session is technically a committee meeting, several members of both the Rowan County Board of Commissioners and the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education and top staffers are expected to attend.