The Lawrence County Commission has agreed to purchase the old Ford dealership, and more recently, the building owned by the Lawrence County Board of Developmental Disabilities in Coal Grove, for the purpose of moving the county’s 911/EMA center from Park Ave. in Ironton into one emergency operations center.

The commission, along with county auditor Jason Stephens and county chief deputy auditor Chris Kline, has been working on the purchase of the building, located at 715 Lane St. in Coal Grove, for more than a month.

“The condition of the current houses where 911 and EMA are have deteriorated over the past 10 years or so,” Commission President Bill Pratt said. “We’ve been actively searching for a place to move these entities, and approached the board of DD about this facility that’s no longer in use.”

The county made the purchase for $275,000, which is from the Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO) tax, or one-time revenue money.

“This was paid for completely from MCO tax money,” Stephens said. “No EMS funds were used for this purchase, and the EMS levy has nothing to do with this.”

The building sits on nearly five acres, is around 12,000-13,000 square feet and already contains roughly 13 offices inside.

“This is a significant step in making our emergency services more efficient,” Stephens said. “It sets the ground work for future possibilities as well.”

Moving into the building will be Lawrence County 911, emergency management (EMA), the Lawrence County Planning Commission (LCPC), possibly the Lawrence County Coroner’s Office, which doesn’t have a current office, and storage for Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office evidence.

Stephens added that the building also contains around 100 parking spaces and provides a great opportunity for everything to be in one place in the event of an emergency.

“I’m thrilled to death that we were able to complete this purchase,” Stephens said. “I think this will be a great thing for Lawrence County.”

In other action, the commission:

• Approved one new floodplain permit and two floodplain permit renewals.

• Approved the Dog Warden Report dated Jan. 13, 2018.

• Approved the request for the change in composition of the Corrections Planning Board, as requested by the Lawrence County Court of Common Pleas.

• Approved and signed the lowest bidder and Notice of Award for the Law-52-17.27/Solida Road J&C Interchange/Roadway improvements project to Allard Excavation and enter into contracts after funds are encumbered. The award amount is $1,838,119.43.

• Approved and signed the lowest bidder and Notice of Award for the Lawrence County Road 4-4.75 Landslide Repair Project to Allard Excavation and enter into contracts after funds are encumbered. The award amount is $227,932.08.

• Received and filed the report of operation from Lawrence County Municipal Court from Jan. 1, 2017 through Dec. 31, 2017.

• Received and filed the 2017 Final Amended Certificate and the 2018 Amended Certificates, as requested by the Lawrence County Auditor’s Office.

• Received and filed the letter from the Dawson-Bryant Local School District regarding the purchase of property. The district is interested in purchasing the vacant Kemp Medical facility and the surrounding property for the purposes of district expansion, room to provide advancement and additional opportunities to the students, district and community, office space, program growth, hosting and strengthening community involvement, storage, a fenced bus lot and land for Little League practices.

• Received and filed the correspondence from Chris Lucas regarding the purchase of property.

• Approved the resignation of Terry Dolin effective Jan. 30, 2018, as requested by Mac Yates, EMS Operations Administrator.

• Approved the status change of Justin Johnson from full-time paramedic to part-time paramedic effective Feb. 2, 2018, as requested by Mac Yates, EMS Operations Administrator.

• Met in executive session with Chris Kline and Jeremy Eastwood regarding personnel; hire, fire, reprimand. No action was taken.

• Met in executive session with Chris Kline and Lisa Pine regarding personnel; hire, fire, reprimand. No action was taken.