MARSHALL - Madison County authorized moving into Phase 4 of its Public Service Complex, a nearly $90 million facility that broke ground in July, after commissioners heard updates from the construction and design teams Oct. 13.
The Public Service Complex is a 80,000-square-foot facility to include a judicial center on Medical Park Drive in the field behind the health department in Marshall.
The complex will consolidate governmental, social and judicial services into a single facility, including Department of Social Services, clerk of court, inspection, child support, county administration, information technology, as well as county offices such as register of deeds, zoning and planning, board of elections and a commissioner meeting space.
In the
Madison County Board of Commissioners' Sept. 8 meeting, County Manager Rod Honeycutt said the county is still searching for roughly $30 million to fund the project, and the county could see a local tax increase if the county doesn't come up with the gap funding for the project by July 2027. According to Honeycutt, 2 cents of the county's current 36 cents per $100 valuation rate is devoted to debt services, which would bring a potential tax increase from 7 cents to 5 cents, if no more money were to come in.
"Our goal would be to have zero increase," Honeycutt told The News-Record Sept. 17. "I think we're going to get all the money."
In the commissioners' Oct. 13 meeting, Cynthia Turner, a senior project manager at LS3P, said her firm was performing the site design for the project, while Asheville-based Vannoy Construction is doing the construction.
In her report to the board, Turner said the question of "why this project?" was a central and recurring one.
"Early in the advanced planning process, a mission statement was developed relating to this project, and what it means for the county to provide Madison County with a state-of-the-art multi-government complex that meets the needs of the community, that brings your government up to a reliable and permanent source of excellence to serve the county, with aesthetics to protect the heritage of Madison County by paying homage to the previous courthouse," Turner said.
The county's historic courthouse in downtown Marshall was one of the oldest in daily use in the state; it was completed in July 1908. The courthouse, located along North Main Street in downtown Marshall, was damaged in Hurricane Helene, and court operations are currently taking place at a temporary facility at North Carolina Cooperative Extension along Carolina Drive in Marshall.
In August, Honeycutt told The News-Record the new facility will be a boon to the county as a whole, and will attract potential businesses to the county.
"Right now, we're pouring millions of dollars to maintain buildings that are Band-Aids. Let's put that money into a facility that is something we're proud of, something that the investor and the public can come to," he said. "There's too many positives to outweigh the negatives."
Design layout
According to Turner, the facility will have 260 parking spaces across three levels.
The first floor will house multiple county departments, including development services, environmental health, tax department and register of deeds.
The board of commissioner meeting room will be on the second floor, along with county administration, human resources, the finance department, board of elections, early voting, Department of Social Services and child support.
The courts and court support functions, including the clerks of court, probation and parole services, juvenile justice, district attorney's office and the sheriff's office's secure access to the courts will be housed on the third floor, Turner said.
The board unanimously agreed to lock in to the more than $29 million for the Phase 4's material purchase and acquisition. Phase 4, the building's construction, will begin in March 2027.
"Our intent with this is to understand the budget that has already been made available to the county and be able to procure materials, lock in pricing and get that cost surety for major components that take a long time to get our hands on, and are impactful to the early part of the schedule," Grogan said, adding that those components include concrete, masonry, structural steel and utilities, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems.
T.J. Hollars, director of operations at Vannoy, said the contract amendment allows the county to reduce its financial risk due to the volatility of material prices and availability.
"Like steel for instance — we've got news just this week that steel right now for a building this size, it's over a year (waiting period)," Hollars said. "If we released it today, we wouldn't get steel until November of next year."
According to Grogan, the project is still tracking towards a nearly $90 million total cost.
"This would be procuring about two-thirds of what that budget is, with the remainder of that work being in Phase 5," Hollars said. "We have communicated with the market. We are confident that we're able to hold that budget value, that $89.9 million, and still maximize the product and the value that the county is receiving from this building."
Background
In February 2022, the county commissioners formed a courthouse work group to outline plans for the courthouse after the county received $3.8 million in funding in then-Gov. Roy Cooper's biennium budget, Senate Bill 105.
Then, in October 2023, the county poured in a number of renovations at the courthouse after Lord Aeck Sargent architect Karen Gravel said a space-needs team concluded that the most appropriate model for the courthouse is the "bare minimum" model.
Among the repairs and renovations were new flooring and interior paint, mold remediation, a new metal stairway for emergency egress and a retractable ladder, all of which were recommendations that came from recommendations presented to the commissioners by Madison County and Yancey County District Attorney Seth Banks.
"That building was neglected for many of those years," Wechtel said. "We've spent a ton of money trying to get that building up to par. It wasn't ADA compliant in many ways. It was an unsafe building, because there was only one way in and one way out in the event of a drastic event."
"We started out with a nonpartisan group, they all came together and decided that this old courthouse just wasn't going to continue to suffice, which was already defined in the 1970s," Garrison said. "So, it was no new news, we just finally had to step up and say we're going to deal with it."
According to Honeycutt, the county is at roughly 70% of its fundraising goal for the project, though Honeycutt told The News-Record Sept. 17 he's more confident it will secure its funding than ever before.
"We've got the money to pay for where we're at right now," Commissioner Matt Wechtel said. "This buys us the extra time we need to obtain the remainder of the fnding that's going to be necessary to complete the project."
Commissioner Alan Wyatt recommended the board and LS3P and Vannoy representatives meet with residents at community centers to detail the history of the project. "There are reasons behind this, that are just more than this last hurricane," Wyatt said. "I think that would be good to do a grand tour."
There are five options the county is pursuing in its courthouse funding, including:
- $10 million grant through Renew NC, the state's long-term disaster recovery effort.
- $6 million grant through the state Office of State Budget and Management.
- Additionally, the state General Assembly has made a verbal commitment to three funding allocations, Honeycutt said. The state has given the county roughly $50 million across two cycles, and the county has requested an additional $28 million in its upcoming next budget allocation.
"In 10, 15 or 20 years, our names will be forgotten, and history will have passed us by," Commission Chair Michael Garrison said at an Aug. 7 groundbreaking ceremony, adding that the building will serve as a memorial, a monument and testimony for the county's resilience through Helene and what it's endured over the years.
"Our community is steeped with humble mountain folks that are rugged, courageous and willing to take on new endeavors. This is one of them. This Public Service Complex ... every bit of it is for the people of Madison County."
Johnny Casey is the Madison County communities reporter for The Citizen Times and The News-Record & Sentinel. He can be reached at 828-210-6074 or jcasey@citizentimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Madison Co. authorizes funds for Phase 4 of its Public Service Complex
