New possible location found for coroner’s office

The Brown County Commissioners are working to secure a new place for the Brown County coroner’s office, since the current coroner will be retiring from his other job at a local funeral home this year.

Commissioners President Jerry Pittman announced plans at the April 13 Brown County Council meeting for a new coroner’s office to be built on property owned by Jerry Fleetwood three miles out of Nashville.

Pittman said Fleetwood was willing to build the county a building for around $115,000 and then lease it back to the county for 15 years “at a reasonable cost to be determined.”

The building would be around 40 feet by 40 feet and would include an office for the coroner along with room for three refrigerated areas and the necessary facilities for autopsies.

At the May 6 commissioners meeting, Pittman said he was working with the county’s attorney to prepare a lease for 15 years. “At the end of 15 years, we both walk away, he gets the building and we’re done. It will save us the cost of finding property and constructing a building. We’ll have a fixed monthly payment made to him,” Pittman said.

“The terms of that lease are negotiable at this point in time. It will be a standard formula on how much return you should get on an investment. He’s not looking to get rich and we’re not looking to take advantage of anybody. It will be a good two-way deal for both of us.”

This option is the “least expensive way to get out of building a new coroner’s office,” Pittman said.

Coroner Earl Piper plans to retire this year from his main job at Bond-Mitchell Funeral Home, and that is where he has been taking bodies involved in coroner cases when the need arises. He currently uses a room in his home as his office.

Deputy Coroner Rob Ayers and Piper had estimated that a 40-foot-by-40-foot pole barn-type building with a concrete floor would be sufficient.

“This could happen very quickly. The building could probably be done and moved into by August,” Pittman said.

After 15 years, Pittman said Fleetwood would be looking for another tenant and that it could be worked out where the county would have the first right of refusal to continue the lease at that time if leaders wished.

Redevelopment commission mapping out priorities

The Brown County Redevelopment Commission is mapping out its short- and long-term priorities and wants input from the public.

The BC RDC is a five-member group appointed by the county commissioners and county council for “investigating, studying and surveying areas within Brown County that need redevelopment, and then determining a plan for combating problem areas,” according to the group’s website, choosebrowncounty.com.

Current members are Justin Schwenk, Jim Schultz, Sean Milloy, Gary Bartels and Michael Spalding. The school board also has a representative at meetings, but that person is nonvoting.

In a virtual meeting on May 7, the members — three of whom are new this year — learned about what the group had been working on last year. President Schwenk explained the concept of gathering data about abandoned, vacant homes in the county, which could possibly be rebuilt into affordable, habitable homes. All voting members supported continuing with this project. They also started thinking about others, and started working on a goals chart which is viewable online at https://bit.ly/BCRDCPLAN. The goals chart is on page 15.

Other possible goals members mentioned were looking into uses for vacant commercial properties in the county; creating a countywide land conservation plan; understanding and expanding what attracts young families to this community; creating a unified brand to include both town and county; creating a rotating loan fund; identifying “bergs” in the county that can be reinvigorated; and others.

Schwenk invited any community members who wished to contribute ideas to do so. He can be reached at [email protected].

The group’s next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, May 28 on Zoom. A link will be posted in the “government calendar” file for that week on bcdemocrat.com and on the Brown County Democrat’s Facebook page the evening of the meeting.