NOTE: The first word of the name of the committee overseeing the Barren County justice center project was incorrect in the original post and has now been corrected.
By Melinda J. Overstreet / Glasgow News 1
The only property left for the Barren County Public Properties Corp. to acquire an option to purchase for a proposed justice center is the site of the Dollar General Store along West Main Street, said Circuit Judge John T. Alexander at Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Barren County Fiscal Court.
He added that he anticipates no problems with getting that option secured, but the language on the legal documents has to be tweaked a little to allow the store to stay in operation there as long as feasible while relocation options are explored.
Alexander is part of the project development dommittee established as required to manage the progress of the project.
“We’re trying to make sure that we can get them as much time as we can get away with that doesn’t impair the progress of our project,” he said. “I would say they’ve been great to work with and extremely easy to get along with, so I have no issues there.”
Alexander noted that Magistrate Tim Coomer had alluded in his invocation earlier to how situations can be rough on a community when there’s a lot of arguing and infighting.
“I’d say that this is one of those deals where it just shows that if we try, we can get things done that are mutually advantageous,” he said.
Glasgow Common Council had unanimously approved a resolution Sept. 12 to allow BCPP the option to purchase a total of about 3.26 acres, and the judge said the Glasgow Water Co. had approved an option Monday for parcels in its possession, including the former Glasgow Glass building that’s behind the Dollar General Store and relatively small strip behind it.
“The total amount that we’re going to have is four and a quarter acres, and there had been a little discussion about whether that’s enough, and that’s why our architect came in with this … volumetric test fit (conceptual drawing) to show that the parking lot of the appropriate size can be placed on this, and a building that had the appropriate volume could be placed on this, and we’ve got that, of course, with room to spare,” Alexander said.
Magistrate Mark Bowman asked whether they have enough space for the building to face West Main Street, and the judge and Krissie Coe Fields, circuit court clerk, said the actual designs have not been done yet, so they do not know for sure that it will face that direction. There was considerable discussion that ensued to clarify points related to that and requirements that will need to be met to allow for the entrance of the building to be sufficient for numerous people to arrive at approximately the same time, financing and other details.
“Our options with the city and the water company have to be executed on or before Dec. 12, so basically we’ll be looking at a little bit less than 90 days and we should have pen on paper as far as purchase contracts or contracts to sell, and Dollar General will be somewhere in that relative time period,” Alexander said.
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