Cherokee County commissioners are moving forward with renovating the former National Guard Armory, which is planned to be used for at least seven different functions.
However, there’s a strong possibility the new board configuration will vote to change those plans when two new members take office in December.
Commissioner Cal Stiles is on record heavily opposing the renovation project and prefers to sell the building. Meanwhile, Victoria Bauman and Jan Griggs – who are seeking the District 5 seat to replace Chairman Roy Dickey, who did not seek re-election – are on record stating they each would rather see use of the armory completely planned out before moving county offices into the building.
“If I am elected and find out it’s an albatross, I’ll be in favor of unloading [the former armory] rather than spending taxpayer dollars [to fix it up],” Bauman told the Cherokee Scout last week. “We have more important issues, like the sewer issue, that needs our attention.”
Assuming Commissioners Dan Eichenbaum and Gary “Hippie” Westmoreland vote to continue on the path in motion, that leaves Randy Phillips with the tie-breaking vote. Phillips, who defeated Commissioner C.B. McKinnon in the primary election for the District 2 seat, is running unopposed in the general election.
“I need to see what their plans are before I can say whether I would go forward or would rather sell it,” Phillips told the Scout in a recent phone conversation.
Commissioners recently voted to move forward with renovating the former armory building to accommodate the Veterans Services Office and a new Board of Commissioners meeting room. Some of the commissioners previously said they would like to move all functions not related to the courthouse out of the historic building on Peachtree Street downtown.
Due to the pandemic, commissioners are meeting in Penland Senior Center on Alpine Street instead of the courthouse, where the meetings used to be held. Officials plan to move those meetings into the former shooting range inside the former armory as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, county officials have already taken steps to move the Veterans Services Office out of the courthouse into the former armory. Commissioners voted to appropriate at least $100,000 to the move and renovation effort; however, county officials do not believe it will cost that much.
Veterans services will occupy four offices in the former armory building, according to the plan in motion. Officials say the floors need to be polished, the walls need paint, several ceiling tiles need to be replaced, and the phone and computer networking lines need to be installed in those four offices alone. Additionally, a heating system must be installed because the offices only have air conditioning.
“We’re still waiting to find out what it’s going to cost us to have Blue Ridge Mountain (Electric Membership Corp.) run a fiber line to this building because there’s not one,” County Manager Randy Wiggins told the Scout. “I would hope that we could get our veterans services folks in here for $20,000 or less, not knowing what the fiber line is going to cost us. It’s very reasonable to believe we can have veterans services operational out of this facility by the end of the year.”
Today, the former armory is equipped with three toilets, three urinals, three sinks and three shower heads in the men’s restroom. Meanwhile, the women’s restroom has one toilet, two sinks and one shower, which means full renovation plans must include at least one more bathroom for women.
“After veterans services, the very next function that happens with this building will require us to install additional fixtures, according to code,” Wiggins said.
Although it does receive water from the county, the building today has a septic system. While there are no plans to convert it to a sewer system, some people believe county offices and public meeting spaces would place too much strain on the septic system because it was built in the late 1980s to accommodate a 60-person armory. Officials say it would cost about $375,000-$425,000 to run municipal sewer lines to the building.
In addition to moving veterans services and the board of commissioners’ meeting room into the former armory, officials plan to relocate the following utilities into the building: Emergency Management Services, Building Code Enforcement, Emergency Medical Services administration, 911 Addressing and the Cooperative Extension Service.
Officials are also contemplating whether to construct a second floor to house another set of offices within the high-ceiling assembly hall area. Commissioners gave county officials permission to contract an architect to create a preliminary design for the building; however, those plans will not be official blueprints. The county will spend about $5,000 for the design.
With Stiles opposed to renovating the armory from the start, the board previously voted to move forward with a slightly different plan for use of the building. Those plans were halted due to revenue concerns resulting from business shutdowns caused by the pandemic. After sales tax revenue for the last quarter of the 2020 fiscal year exceeded expectations, commissioners voted to move forward with renovations.
Stiles believes the armory should be sold and a new building for county offices should be built using proceeds from the sale. However, other commissioners argue that the armory is the best built building in the county, other than the courthouse, so it should be kept and maintained by the taxpayers.
Decision on whether to proceed with renovations or sale the armory will mostly likely come up for a vote after the new board members take office in December.