By John Raffel
Correspondent
ALLEGAN – Allegan County commission chairman James Storey has provided a statement in response to three county officials filing suit over an alleged plan to move some county offices to a location outside of the county seat.
The suit was filed by the clerk-register, treasurer and drain commissioner.
Here’s Storey’s statement:
“The suit by three officials of Allegan County is unfortunate and unnecessary. There is a required need to provide space for a new, third circuit court judge in early 2025 while meeting other judicial requirements. Within the county’s plans, the three officials could maintain space in the existing building as other Counties have successfully done when faced with the same circumstances.
“However, existing county owned office space within the historic county seat of Allegan Township would be utilized for these offices to expand availability of general government services and speed the judicial process. Maintaining all current operations at the existing location would require an expenditure of $40 to $50 million for a new consolidated building.
“The Board of Commissioners has pursued a plan to re-purpose a soon-to-be-vacant, physically sound building inside Allegan Township for modernizing these offices while preserving principal office space for the complaining officials. The cost of the Board of Commissioners plan is $10 million versus the $40 to $50 million cost of a new building.”