Fire will displace offices until 2018
Several Bradley County, Tenn., offices displaced by Saturday’s courthouse fire are looking for temporary homes.
The electrical fire, which started in the building’s mechanical room, damaged the facility’s power grid, air conditioning and ceiling tiles, according to a report by Bradley County Mayor D. Gary Davis to county officials Monday.
Davis said the courthouse will be out of action for probably four months because it will take six to eight weeks to build and deliver its new air conditioning system, plus another six to eight weeks to install it. Damage estimates are not available now, he said.
Davis said the county has received 15 offers to provide space for the disrupted offices, but said the ideal solution would be to put their 43 employees in one or two locations to maximize insurance allowances for leasing space.
“There’s not many [spaces] that will hold everybody, but we still have those options,” Davis said. “I want to know from elected officials is do you want to go ahead and do your own thing, or do you want to hold out and get one or two locations for everybody?”
Davis said he hoped to work out a leasing agreement today for space at an undisclosed location. If that works out, he plans to announce a schedule for relocating offices such as the county clerk, trustee and assessor. While he could offer no guarantees, he mentioned the possibility of having displaced offices back on line by the end of the week.
After the meeting, Davis refused to disclose the amount of insurance money the county would have available to lease space, nor would he reveal the sites under consideration.
“On behalf of the taxpayers, I’m not going to talk dollars and I really don’t want to talk locations because the politics will start,” Davis said, citing his desire not to tip the county’s hand in the coming lease negotiations.
Bradley County Circuit Court Clerk Gayla Miller announced several courts have been successfully shuffled to temporary sites. In addition to the criminal courtrooms already housed at the Bradley County Judicial Complex, courts now occupy spaces at the sheriff’s office, city hall and the juvenile justice center.
“We’re moved,” Miller said. “We’re ready to move as soon as the computers come up.”
The Bradley County Commission, which meets the first four Mondays of each month, scheduled its first postfire meeting at the Bradley Central High School library Monday night.
Hamilton County Clerk Bill Knowles has offered the services of his office to assist Bradley County residents with state vehicle registrations while the Bradley County Clerk’s Office is offline.