BENTONVILLE — Benton County is set to open its new Rogers office building today, even though a few details will remain unfinished.
"They're already starting to move," County Judge Bob Clinard said last week.
At A Glance
Moving In
Benton County is set to open its new Rogers offices today. Sarah Daniels, county comptroller, said the purchase price of the building was $779,270. The county set aside $50,000 last year to begin renovation of the building, Daniels said, and spent $21,643 of that amount in 2013. This year, the county had another $150,000 in the budget and the Quorum Court recently approved spending another $138,900 in added construction costs and $23,000 for moving expenses and chairs. The county’s “commissioned accounts,” which include the assessor and collector, and the Historical Preservation Commission agreed to cover $43,000 of the renovation costs and the county clerk agreed to pay $20,000 in moving expenses.
Source: Staff Report
The county bought the former USA Drug building at 1428 W. Walnut St., at the intersection of Walnut and 15th streets, on Oct. 30. The county clerk, assessor, collector and public defender will each have space in the office, as will the state Revenue Office and the Benton County Historical Preservation Commission. The county will close its former Rogers office at Third and Poplar streets and the office on 28th Street in Bentonville, combining those two offices in the new Rogers location.
"The plan is for us to be open for business at 8 a.m. (today)," said Bear Chaney, assessor, "It seems like everything in our office is ready to go."
Chaney said he expects the new location to be a great improvement over the two offices.
"I think the move is going to be good for the taxpayers," Chaney said. "The most noticeable thing will be that we've got a lot of room in the office and more parking for the public. We'll be able to get the public in and out quicker."
John Sudduth, the county's general services administrator, said the renovation and relocation were going smoothly.
"We're right on schedule," Sudduth said.
Sudduth said at least one detail will remain unsettled when the office opens today. The city adopted an overlay district ordinance for the site that took effect in January and that might keep the county from using a large pylon sign at the location. Sudduth said the county is asking for a variance or waiver of the regulations. A hearing set for this morning.
"We can use wall signs or monument signs, but we'd rather have our pylon sign," he said, citing the greater visibility of the pylon sign for drivers on Walnut Street. "The monument sign is not going to be near as helpful to people in that traffic as the pylon sign will be, but we'll comply either way."
The cost of the move drew criticism recently after Sudduth told the county's justices of the peace he had approved some added work that pushed the price beyond the original estimate. Several justices of the peace complained about being asked to approve expenditures after the fact. Clinard said that was an oversight by the administration that will not be repeated. He said the building will prove to be well worth the cost.
"It's a fine facility," Clinard said. "The $200,000 figure was purely an estimate and we should have gone back to the court before going ahead with the additional work. But the thing to remember is that the building is an asset. That is not money that's just thrown out. The building will serve the largest concentration of population in the county for years to come. What we've spent over there is very frugal. There's nothing fancy about it."
Chaney was busy last week getting the final details of the move, like interior signage and seating, sorted out with his office staff and with county workers finishing the work on the building. He said some of those details may be subject to change once the building is open and functioning.
"A month from now we'll know what's going to work and what isn't going to work," he said.
NW News on 03/03/2014