Tax office makes new complex full
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Columbia County Tax Commissioner Kay Allen hangs a picture in her new office in Building C at the Columbia County Government Complex.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
The Columbia County Government Complex is fully occupied, for now.
The Columbia County Tax Commissioner's Office took over the last open space early last week when it moved into its now home on the second floor of Building C at the complex on Ronald Reagan Drive.
Building C was completed last November, but Columbia County Tax Commissioner Kay Allen held off on leaving her former headquarters in Appling.
"The tax commissioner waited to move until January, because Kay Allen thought it would be better to wait and avoid any confusion with people trying to pay their property taxes," said Mark Chostner, the county's facility planning construction manager.
Allen shares Building C with the county tax assessor's office, information technology division and finance department. Like the superior court clerk's office and probate court, Allen will keep a satellite office in Appling. That location will be open Tuesdays only.
Now that Building C is full, nearby Building B will soon be losing one its busiest offices.
In December, county commissioners approved moving the state Department of Motor Vehicle Safety driver's license office out of the government complex and into a shopping center on Evans-to-Locks Road.
The 1,480-square-foot storefront in the former Food Lion Plaza is nearly 600 square feet larger than the driver's license bureau's current office. The new location also offers much more parking for the 150 people that the bureau sees on average each day.
Boxes of tax records are moved into the Columbia County Tax Office in Building C at the Evans Government Complex.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
Funded through one-cent sales tax, or SPLOST, money, Building C cost $2.8 million to build. But as the county grows, Building C may also expand.
"In the next SPLOST we're looking at a couple of things," Chostner said. "That building is designed to grow to the west toward Washington Road. It's designed for about another 15,000 square feet. It's set up like that based on our rate of growth."
The next sales-tax referendum in July also may ask voters to approve funds for a new emergency-management operations center, Chostner said.
"When the county grows, the government needs to be able to grow to support them," he said. "That's a good thing, I think."