County services coming to the 280 corridor

By mid-2021, Shelby County residents who live along U.S. 280 will have a one stop shop to handle their county services in one convenient place.

“We did this to consolidate services so people don’t have to go multiple places to get what they need,” said County Manager Chad Scroggins. “We’ve talked about this for a couple of years and since leases were coming up to be renewed, our goal was to complete the project before the leases are up.”

Those leases include the license office in Inverness, the sheriff’s substation in Greystone and the water services building in Westover.

The Shelby County Services Building-280 Center project recently began, with the demolition of the building owned by Shelby County and leased by Blackwatch Sports at the intersection of Shelby County 41 and U.S. 280 in late January. In February, pre-construction and pre-bid meetings took place, and after all the bids come in the county will take the lowest qualified one.

Construction is planned to begin in April and take 12 to 14 months to complete.

Williams Blackstock Architects has already completed about 90 percent of the design for the three-story, 46,000 square feet building that will feature a metal finish with brick and concrete.

Most things the public needs will be located on the first floor and include:

► The Shelby County License Office, which is relocating from Inverness Corners. They will handle drivers license and car tag renewals. The new location will feature a unique queuing system so that residents don’t have to stand in line, but instead will be given a number and be seated until they are called.

► The Water Services customer center (relocating from Westover Water Services Building)

► The Sheriff’s North Office Substation (relocating from its current office at Greystone Commercial Center).

► An ALEA Driver’s Testing Suite (the third location in the county along with Columbiana and Pelham)

► A Community Room that will be used for assemblies, training, voting and other events.

A drive through teller will also be available to renew car tags or pay water bills.

The second floor will house Shelby County 911 and the sheriff’s office, along with training space and a break room. Shelby 911 dispatches fire and EMS services along with law enforcement throughout the county and will have up to 12 dispatchers there 24 hours a day. They will be moving from the county services building in Pelham where they have been for the past 20 years.

Alan Campbell, Executive Director for Shelby 911 said the new building was designed for 12 dispatchers with room to expand to 16.

“Our current building was designed to only accommodate six dispatchers,” Campbell said. “We now support 11 at any given time so we have significantly outgrown our current space.”

That portion of the building will be storm rated, which means it will be able to withstand winds up to 250 miles per hour.

“If we were to go through a tornado situation, we could continue to operate and dispatch first responders,” Campbell said.

By partnering with the county at this building, Campbell said their department will be able to share break rooms, training rooms and conference room space.

Campbell described the new space as a “state of the art center that will have all the latest technology and include generator backup power.

Shelby 911 answers about 80,000 calls per year and dispatches for four law enforcement agencies and 28 fire departments.

The sheriff’s offices will feature training rooms, interview rooms and reporting rooms.

“In those interview rooms, should someone need to meet with a deputy, they can meet and talk in private,” Scroggins said.

The top floor’s main tenant will be Central Alabama Wellness, which provides a variety of services to children, adolescents and adults dealing with mental illness and/or substance abuse disorder and intellectual disabilities. They will provide prevention and counseling services to meet their clients closer to where they live.

“There is so much demand for mental health services and think this is a great idea to bring the services to the people,” Scroggins said. “Transportation is an inhibitor for access to wellness and this allows us to bring it closer to residents in this area.”

58 INC will have a meeting space/ business center. Any partner agencies will also have the ability to utilize this office space there when they are out in the field and need to make reports.

Workstation areas can be used for Business Revenue officials, Development Services Building Inspectors, Property Tax Commissioner Field Appraisers, Health Department State Inspectors, M4A field personnel and Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) state troopers.

Since the former building was a voting location, a temporary voting structure will be set up for the March 3 vote. It will be located in the parking lot and Scroggins thinks it will be a good experience.

“People can vote faster and the traffic will flow easier. We will also have shuttle and golf carts to improve efficiency,” he said.

The county services building in Pelham is 20 years old, and Scroggins said that 911 and others have grown out of their space.

“The 280 Center allows us to move 911 into a space to accommodate their growth, while creating open spaces at the Pelham building to allow other departments to grow into,” he said.

Scroggins said that they realized after 20 years in the Pelham building, they should build some unfinished spaces into this new building for future expansion.

“The Dunnavant valley corridor is the fastest growing corridor in the last 15 years, and this facility allows the county to meet residents where they are,” Scroggins said.