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Hamblen County Commissioners moved forward with the purchase agreement for Oak Tree Plaza to relocate the Health Department while meeting in committees.

Hamblen County Mayor Bill Brittain presented a proposal to the finance committee to purchase the Oak Tree Plaza location – currently owned by Encore Theatrical Company and previously a Food City – to serve as the new health department location.

“The property included in this purchase is 27.3 acres and the building is over 48,000 and the two paying tenants are the Dollar General and Maddie B’s Bounce House,” Brittain said. “Encore Theatrical Company owns the building and the cost to us would be $1,582,500.”

The county would renovate 12,000 sq. ft. of the grocery space for the health department, and 9,000 sq. ft. would be renovated for office space, leaving 15,000 sq. ft. of vacant space. The county will also use the area behind the facility as an impound lot for the Sheriff’s office.

“We will renovate the grocery space as the health department wants it so it is efficient and the 9,000 sqft office space could be used as office space for the county,” Brittain said.

“By moving some functions of the county to this facility we could get out of leases and apply most of that cost to operating costs of the new facility and the rest could go to other places”

The county plans to pay for the property by using $1,137,500 from the sale of the current health department building, $687,500 from general funds reserves or split with the opioid settlement.

The committee voted unanimously to approve moving forward with the proposal to purchase the Oak Tree Plaza for the health department.

BurWill Construction Project Manager Tony Pettit came before the commission to explain the change order and discuss the progress of the Justice Center.

“We are 37% built to date, which is how we track completion. Of that 37%, 20% is stored materials which is to fight supply issues. We are also at $34,000,000 billed and $18,000,000 is in stored materials,” Pettit said.

“PCO 26 or RFI-127 is a wall that was added that goes below slab to help with earth retaining and that is $4, 799,” Petitt said.

“PCO 31 which costs $37,723 goes back to our favorite topic, micro piles. There was an area where the construction went 150 feet and they didn’t hit anything and micro piles have to hit bed rock, not a fragment it has to be in depth in the rock by 10 feet. In this case micro pile #400 went down and didn’t hit anything, micro pile #401 hit the side of bed rock, and it lost its drill bit and piping.”

“We had to abandon those micro piles and we had our concrete guy, to litigate time, come behind them with rebar for the gray beams and the mat slab. So the engineer had to redesign the project to skip those two micro piles.”

Petitt discussed the bulk of the new change order for fire rating.

“With PCO 40, you have to have fire rating on each floor. You must have to have fire safety in the inside of the building, but also outside at the rec yards. So the $95,000 is for installing Rockwool and fire rated sealant between the edges of all elevated slabs and the backside of the precast wall panels.”

Commissioner Edna Green asked how many more change orders can the county expect.

“You should see them slowing down and be more minor,” Pettit said. “Problems can occur at any time but they should be slowing down.”

The commission voted to approve of the 10th change order for the justice center project.

The committee also approved of using Barber McMurry Architects to design the health department design and office space at the cost of $448,454.

The officers of the third Judicial Recovery Support Services came before the finance committee to update it on its search for a transitional housing facility.

The committee voted in September to set aside $500,000 from the Opioid Settlement with Endo Pharmaceuticals for the program, but not to release the funds until it has a found a facility and has a solid plan moving forward.

The officers presented the two options to the committee for the facility that are placed on High Street.

“The properties are placed in the middle of town near the Blossom Shop near several bus stops which is important because most of the people we serve have problems with transportation. The locations are near the court house and is two blocks away from our office,” said. Hamblen County Recovery Court Director Penny Knight.

The recovery court applied for a grant that would cover renovation costs for the facility such as a new roof and other foundation work.

The committee voted to move forward with purchasing the facility for the transitional housing.

“It comes from all of the commissioners and everyone in the county, we are so appreciative of the work that you have put in to make this a reality because it is need in our county,” Commissioner Bobby Haun said.