Almost five months after the Mississippi Department of Wildlife,Fisheries and Parks lost the lease on its county-owned districtoffice in Brookhaven, supervisors still have no solid plan forrenovating the building for further use by a county agency.

Dungan Engineering Civil Engineer Ryan Holmes said an architecthas been contacted to inspect the interior of the office buildingat 304 South Second St., but the inspection has not taken place andthe county has no cost or scope of work estimates on which to builda renovation plan.

Supervisors voted unanimously in January to allow the wildlifedepartment’s lease on the building to expire so the Lincoln CountyTax Assessor’s Office could move out of its cramped quarters in thecourthouse and into the office building. The tax office is alreadysplit into two locations, the second being a rented space acrossFirst Street in the old Kees building.

District Five Supervisor Gary Walker said supervisors decided tolet the wildlife department’s lease expire because they had noother options for relocating the tax office, and using thecounty-owned building will save money on renting a facility.

The wildlife department pays the county $500 per month to usethe building, and the county pays $500 per month to use the Keesbuilding across First Street for the tax office’s mapping andappraising functions and for records storage.

Walker admitted, however, that he knew little about thecondition of the building before voting to remove the wildlifedepartment.

“I’ll be honest – I haven’t been in it in a few years,” he said.”I ain’t been in there since Wiley (Calcote) was sheriff in thefront part of it.”

What other supervisors knew about the building’s conditionremains unclear.

Board of Supervisors President the Rev. Jerry Wilson refused tocomment on the situation when contacted Thursday. When speaking onthe issue Wednesday, Wilson indicated how much renovation thebuilding needs was not known.

“It’s going to take some money to do it, though,” Wilsonsaid.

District Two Supervisor Bobby Watts and District ThreeSupervisor Nolan Williamson could not be reached for comment, andDistrict Four Supervisor Doug Moak did not immediately respond tovoice messages seeking comment.

The wildlife department – which has had its District Five officein Brookhaven for 12 years – is expected to move to an existingfacility at Percy Quin State Park in McComb this fall, leavingbehind what is shaping up to be a large renovation project forsupervisors.

“It’s a dated building,” Holmes said. “Overall, the building isan old building and (supervisors are) going to have to rehab a lotof the interior to make it a usable space.”

Lincoln County Tax Assessor Nancy Jordan predicted it could beanother full year before her office is ready to move into thebuilding, as no renovations can begin until after the wildlifedepartment has moved on. Even then, she said the building is inworse shape than originally thought.

Jordan said wildlife department officials told her thebuilding’s roof leaks and pieces of plaster fall from the ceilingand collect on equipment. She is also concerned about whether thebuilding has ample counter space, which her employees will need inorder to meet and serve the public.

Additionally, Jordan said her computers would likely require newcommunication lines to be installed in the building.

“They’ve got their cart ahead of the horse,” she said ofsupervisors. “What should have been done is they should have seenif it was feasible to fix it up for me before they asked the(department of) wildlife to leave.”

Furthermore, locating the tax office into the Second Streetoffice building would still leave Jordan’s employees working in twolocations.

She said plans call for the appraising, assessing and mappingoffices to move into the wildlife department’s currentheadquarters, while the collector’s office would remain in thecourthouse. The small courthouse offices may require renovation,too, she said.

Even if a plan to renovate the building comes together, payingfor the project could be an issue. County officials requestedfederal assistance for the project during a recent trip toWashington, D.C., to meet with Mississippi’s congressionaldelegation, but the request was not immediately granted.

County Administrator David Fields said the county could renovatethe building piece-by-piece, moving portions of the tax office inas different segments of the building are repaired. But even thatplan faces many questions, he said.