PASCAGOULA - Supervisors took the first step Monday to a new county services complex by approving a contract with JBHM Architects for the building's design. The county wants to build a 60,000-square-foot, $12-million facility south of the courthouse. Those plans tool a hit recently when FEMA decided not to play for flood mitigation efforts on the complex.

The county has $8 million in state grants for the complex.

"This will get the project off the ground," Supervisor John McKay said.

"We may have to scale back," said Tim Broussard, president of the Board of Supervisors. "The dollar amount that we have for the project is an issue and will drive the design."

Broussard said he hopes groundbreaking on the new

facility can be done as early as the first quarter in 2008.

Supervisors want the building to house the county's most-used departments, such as the tax collector's office, the planning department and the tax assessor's office.

"We want the departments with the highest foot traffic in one place," Broussard said. "We want it where every possible destination someone might have a need for with county services is in one place."

In addition to making it easier for county residents to go to one building for all their needs, Broussard said the complex will increase the professional appearance of the county to visitors. Currently, most of the departments the services complex will house are located in older offices in the courthouse or in temporary offices at the fairgrounds.

"We don't show well professionally, and some of that is due to Katrina," Broussard said. "We can do a good job presenting Jackson County services to the public. This is something that needs to be done. The employees need something better and public deserves something better."

- The Mississippi Press, November 6, 2007