Lowndes County residents who do business at the tax assessor/collector”s office now can expect a faster, easier experience, Tax Assessor/Collector Greg Andrews said Thursday.
As he and his staff worked to move the office from the Lowndes County Courthouse into the county”s new administrative office space — housed in the former First Federal Bank building, located at 12th Street and Main Street — Andrews explained the benefits offered by the new space, which includes a drive-through feature.
“For the past 20 years, the assessor”s office has been upstairs (in the courthouse) and the collector”s office was downstairs,” he said. “Now, we”ll all be in one office, basically. And now, you”ll be able to come to one area and all my people will be right there, including the mapping and homestead offices. We”ll still be servicing the public like we normally have, but we”re also going to try to utilize the drive-through window as soon as possible.”
Andrews estimated the drive-through window will be open Aug. 1 and customers can renew their auto tags, property taxes and mobile home taxes from the comfort of their vehicles.
“We”re going to try to cut down on people coming into the office,” he noted. “But for major transactions, like title work and big property taxes, they will need to come in.
“We want to utilize that drive-through as much as possible,” he added, noting initially the first lane of the drive-through window will be open, but the second lane will be used if he sees a “large demand.” “We expect the drive-through to be a very strong area for people.”
The new facility means more space for the tax office and for the Lowndes County Courthouse, which still will be occupied by the chancery and circuit clerk offices.
“The people coming into the courthouse, during court terms, couldn”t even get into the (tax office) to do business,” Andrews said of the overcrowded courthouse. “We”re going to try to create (the new building) as a business complex. A lot of people have already told me they”re glad they don”t have to come to the courthouse to do business. Plus, it will give the clerks more room to operate in the future.
“After coming here for more than 20 years, it”s going to be different not coming to the courthouse to work,” Andrews, who has worked in the tax office since 1988, added. “But I”m happy to be in the new building.”
The supervisors earlier voted to purchase the former bank building with $950,000 of interest money from the sale of the hospital to Baptist for $30 million; other county administrative offices — the county administrator”s office and the purchasing office — will move into the renovated building this week.
The supervisors earlier also voted to spend about $8,700 for new furniture — including chairs for the lobby of the tax office and the second-floor lobby, as well as break room tables for both floors — from My Office Products.
Earlier, the supervisors hired JBHM Architects on a project to renovate the courthouse for more space for the chancery and circuit clerk offices, a new circuit court judge and the district attorney”s office.
The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, which meets in the courthouse boardroom, also has discussed plans to renovate and expand the boardroom space.
Initial courthouse renovation project plans included demolition of the courthouse annex building currently occupied by the district attorney and supervisors” offices, among others, to allow for additional courthouse parking.
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