Brookhaven government moves on potential new home – Daily Leader

Brookhaven city government has resolved to enter into contract negotiations to lease the former Hartman-Harrigill Funeral Home as its new home.

On Tuesday, the board voted 4-2 to move forward with negotiating a contract and entering into a letter of intent with 101 Chickasaw LLC to lease and renovate the existing building located at 101 W. Chickasaw St. in the City of Brookhaven. It is the City's intent to renovate the building for its intended purpose and use as a city hall.”

Councilmen James McGee Jr., Shannon Moore, Rev. Charles Caston Sr. and Fletcher Grice voted in favor of the motion, while Councilmen Andre Spiller and Don Underwood voted against. Ward 4 Councilman Jeff Henning was absent from the vote to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

Spiller said he voted against the motion because he has so far been unable to negotiate with the Keith family, owners of the Keith Automotive Building at the corner of South First and East Cherokee streets, which city council had previously discussed as an option for relocating City Hall.

“I thought we were negotiating with the Keith family.” and John Lynch,” Spiller said. Lynch is the owner of 101 Chickasaw LLC.

Renovations to the former Hartman-Harrigill building include “City Hall, new courtrooms, prisoner housing, public and private restrooms, file storage, access control sprinkler systems, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, generators, lighting, new “Lots of parking,” the motion states.

The rest of the motion reads as follows: “Once the renovations are complete, City Hall will lease from 101 Chickasaw LLC for five years. After five years, the City can choose to lease or purchase under a separate agreement. The City will contribute $250,000 toward the renovations, which will be applied toward the purchase price as tenant renovations. No further payments are required until completion. The City will use capital payments from the County to pay for tenant renovations and future lease payments.”

“This agreement is expressly conditioned on the city and county finalizing and consummating the purchase of the city's interest in the Lincoln County-Brookhaven Government Complex Contract and Agreement.”

In April, Lincoln County Commissioners Attorney Greg Malta told supervisors that the city could take ownership of part of the government complex on South First Street, where both the county and city have offices and courtrooms. said it needed to be purchased.

A 1980 intermunicipal agreement stipulates that if the city government withdraws from the courthouse, the county must repay the city the value of the building, or 20 percent of the city's ownership interest, the lower of two payment options the county had.

“The intermunicipal agreement is that the city and the county will each appraise the building, and then we'll have a third appraisal by appraisers appointed by both the city and the county,” Malta said in April. “We got ours, the city got theirs, and we're waiting on the third appraisal. The numbers will be released and they'll be an average of the three appraisals.”