NEW COUNTY OFFICES — The architect’s rendition of the new county office building is shown at left. Piles of dirt around the former Cash and Carry grocery store building, which will house the office, have aroused interest by many passers-by (see photo above). Contractors are in the process of strengthening an existing basement foundational wall before other work proceeds on the building. The inset photo shows workers digging out the wall prior to steel being placed there. Concrete will then simultaneously be poured inside and outside the existing wall. The county hopes to move into the offices by September ‘05.

New county building under way

Work is under way on the new county office building complex, located in the former location of Wilkes Community College’s Alleghany Campus, that eventually will house many of the county’s departments. The building was first used as the Cash and Carry grocery store.

Among offices to be located there upon its completion, expected to take place in September, 2005, are the register of deeds, E-911 office, tax office, emergency management, county manager’s office, finance office, board of elections and commissioner’s conference room. Hemphill and Associates of Charlotte is handling the job. The project’s lead architect is Frank Randall.

The county has planned to start work on the courthouse by fall of 2005. Some of that building’s occupants, including the register of deeds and tax office, will need to be moved to the new administration building so work can be done in the courthouse.

The work that is going on at this time at the new county office complex is related to stabilizing one of the building’s main structural support walls. The block foundational basement wall was not considered strong enough by engineers to bear the weight of the new building.

“Basically, this bid entailed digging out the basement wall, doing some steel work, pouring support walls on the inside and outside of the basement wall, waterproofing and then backfilling the project,” said County Manager Don Adams.

“That building is basically sitting on eight-inch block, it is not poured solid,” noted Adams. “The engineers and architects and the county agreed that the basement wall needed to be shored up before any significant amount of money was put into the building.”

Meanwhile, Randall explained the repair project to the board at its mid October meeting, noting that the contactor will need to dig around the existing wall down to the footers.

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