The Brookings County Commission will hold a work session Monday before deciding on Tuesday whether to cooperate with the city on a joint administrative facility.

Commissioners discussed at Tuesday’s meeting the Brookings City Council’s Sept. 22 decision to work with the county on a joint facility and later decided to discuss the matter further on Monday evening with city officials present.

City Manager Jeff Weldon appeared at the Tuesday meeting to clarify the council decision and answer commissioners’ questions.

“I think clearly the consensus of the city council, the majority opinion, was that they liked the idea of a joint facility, provided we can find a site, and I think we’ve got two of them, at least, that are conducive to a joint facility,” he told the commission.

The Administrative Facility Task Force presented at a meeting earlier this month four different options for a joint city/county facility: 1921 Building/Fifth Street gym; a parcel south of the Brookings Public Library; the half-block west of the library where NAPA Auto & Truck Parts and other businesses now sit and the Senior Center/McCann Law Office site.

Weldon considers the NAPA and library sites as two viable options for a joint facility.

He also clarified the council’s stated timeline of up to a year for planning a joint facility. The year timeline is a concern to commissioners, who are worried about delaying their space needs project any longer.

The year estimate provides the community an idea of how long the project may take; property acquisition, demolition and other steps may not take that much time, Weldon said.



Shortened timeline?

“If we can get that done in six months or eight months or three months, all the better,” he said. “I think they were just concerned about giving the public some sense of what they thought would be a timeline.”

Commissioner Dennis Falken expressed his continued concern about delaying the county’s space needs decision. The commission voted this summer to construct a county-only facility south of the Brookings County Detention Center, but it has delayed moving forward while considering a project with the city.



Time running out

Falken said he isn’t against a joint facility, but he doesn’t want another extended debate. “If we had that perfect location that would fit both of our needs and we knew exactly where that was and it would take us a year just to finalize that, I don’t have a problem,” he said. “But I guess starting all over again and saying, ‘OK, now we don’t know exactly where this is going to be but we want to try to do something together.’ This may never happen. We may never find a place.”

Weldon agreed that working together would extend the process, which is why the commission will have to think carefully about it.

Falken said the county would do that at Monday’s work session.

“We need to have this joint meeting and come out of that meeting saying, ‘yes, we want to go back into negotiations with you and do this or no, it’s too late for that, we’re going to move forward,’” he said.

Weldon agreed, citing the council’s quick response on Sept. 22 to the joint facility question. “I think the city council would appreciate that too,” he said. “You asked them for an up-or-down decision and you got that. And they want to do a joint facility at this point, and there’s not question that the timing does set us back. However, if it is the right thing to do then I agree, it is worth the investment of the extra time to make the right decision.”



Work session Monday

The commission agreed to host a work session at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the commission chambers of the 1921 Building. The session will officially include only the commission, but the Brookings City Council is invited to attend and Weldon will be on hand to answer questions.

Commissioners expect to make a decision on the joint facility the next day at the regular county commission meeting.

Contact Ryan Woodard at rwoodard@brookingsregister.com