Commissioners discuss moving offices out of annex

Gonzales County commissioners on Monday, Oct. 23, discussed the move of the offices out of the county annex building, which has severe structural issues and is in need of repair or replacement.

Earlier this month, commissioners voted to have the building — which houses the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Gonzales Central Appraisal District, Adult and Juvenile Probation Departments, Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Driver’s License office — vacated by Dec. 1 so work can begin to resolve the issue.

Concerns about the building arose from large cracks in walls at the annex and missing pieces of concrete, which prompted Davis and county maintenance employees Scott McNabb and Brian Kloesel to meet with engineering firms out of Austin and Victoria to determine what was taking place and causing the building to deteriorate rapidly.

“We’re still waiting on the report from the second engineering firm and we’re hoping it will be cheaper to put a metal building in there by taking down those walls instead of having to (knock down) the whole building and start over again,” Davis said. “We all agreed we have to be out of there by Dec. 1.”

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension works closely with the Master Gardeners, so they have already begun a move into the PACE (Plantatarium A Center for Exploration) building at 623 N. Fair St., which is run by the Master Gardeners.

GCAD is eyeing the former Spectrum building, which is located next to the Robert Lee Brothers Jr. Library on Saint Joseph Street, Davis said.

“We’ve been meeting with the city and since (GCAD) is leasing from us now, it makes it simpler if we (Gonzales County) lease the building from the city and they can reimburse us,” Davis said. ‘We went over there and discovered some cleaning that needs to be done. They are going to get ServPro in there and they also need to attempt to make one of the restrooms ADA compatible.”

Chief Appraiser John Liford said his organization cannot move anything — especially their phones service through GVTC — until the county and city sign a contract.

Meanwhile, DPS is negotiating with the Gonzales ISD to lease the former administration building next door to the high school campus at the corner of Sarah DeWitt and Waelder Highway, a deal Davis supports because of the added safety that would bring to Gonzales High School by having DPS troopers nearby.

That leaves Adult and Juvenile Probation, which will move into the Gonzales County Courthouse. Juvenile Probation will take the office space across from Davis’ office, while Adult Probation will go into the courthouse basement level.

Davis said he believes the county needs to “shore up the front and back” walls of the annex becausue those are load-bearing walls and he is hoping that, based on the engineer’s recommendation, the work could possibly be done under the engineer’s watch by county employees from the road and bridge precincts.

“I know you’ve got some good guys working for you and we could sure save a lot of money for the county by putting it on us,” Davis said. “They did good work on the JP 3 building. We’ll have to get two different prices for what it would cost to tear it down and replace it or just to repair it.”