Grimes County Commissioner Gary Husfeld, who recommended the architect the county just employed to design new county facilities, says Grimes has known this was coming for the last four years.
Besides having county employees in several different buildings instead of one, central location, Husfeld says there were lots of leaks from the buildings being so old, and records were starting to be destroyed because of all the resulting mold. That’s why the county decided to hire an architect back in 2013 to come up with a Needs Assessment.
Husfeld says that assessment came up with approximately 25,000 square feet that was currently being utilized back then, and looking at potential growth and expansion, it came up with around 30,000 square feet plus that we need. For comparison, 30,000 square feet is, coincidentally, just about the floor space of Navasota City Hall.
But Husfeld says what really brought the county’s urgent need for new office space back to the fore was the county’s own residents last year when the county initiated the Strategic Plan. We had a number of Town Hall meetings where the citizens came and told us what they wanted. A new Justice Center was near the top of the list.
So Husfeld, along with his fellow Commissioner and construction professional Chad Mallett just held initial meetings with PGAL architects. We’ll keep you up-to-date as the new Justice Center project moves forward, here on Navasota News.
