By John Raffel
Correspondent
MARION – The Osceola County Building, Safety and Grounds committee had discussion at a recent meeting on where to move the current offices from the Courthouse.
It was decided the Administration offices would go to the church property. Equalization will move to the public terminal and mail room space. IT will move to the Maintenance garage. The Drain Commissioner will move to the Emergency Management office and Parks would move to the Building Department.
It was also decided MSU Extension would move to the Commission on Aging building in Hersey.
MSU Extension District 6 Director Eric Karbowski discussed his concerns with the committee on what location will serve their office with the best options as well as being visible by the fair grounds.
Also in the meeting, commissioner Mark Gregory led a talk on why the county is moving towards vacating the Annex. He said it was for safety, cost savings and reduction of county-owned properties.
Gregory said COA director Justin Halladay needs to take MSU for a tour of the COA Hersey location. Gregory also discussed building office space at the church property, building department and courthouse to accommodate the various changes. He also mentioned moving the public terminals and starting renovations for Equalization to move.
It was agreed to look into hiring of several local contractors to do the work. Discussion was led by Chairperson David Turner of Marion on the location of a new EMS base in the Evart area with the possibility of combining Station 1 and Station 2 together and eventually selling the current Reed City EMS Station.
Gregory said if the county is going to move from the city of Evart, it should consider meeting with officials from Evart and the surrounding townships. Discussion was held on the current condition of the Reed City station and the deed restriction on the property.