The Jefferson County Health Department is one step closer to opening a new office in Hillsboro.
The Health Department Board of Trustees voted unanimously Jan. 27 to hire the Archimages architectural firm in Kirkwood to design its new office.
The Health Department still must negotiate a contract with the architectural firm, so a cost for its services had not been set as of Monday. However, the Health Department will likely pay a percentage of the total project, Director Kelley Vollmar said.
She said $10 million has been budgeted for designs, construction and more.
“That’s everything from the furniture to the plants,” she said.
However, that $10 million does not include the $762,953.40 the Health Department paid in February 2021 to buy 7.75 acres of land near highways 21 and B in the Pear Tree Plaza in Hillsboro for the office.
The agency’s current Hillsboro office is at 405 Main Street.
Eleven architectural firms responded to the Health Department’s request for qualifications, and the board’s building subcommittee and department staff interviewed three of them.
The subcommittee includes board members James Prater and Tim Pigg.
Plans for the new office call for a 24,000-square-foot office building and a 9,000-square-foot maintenance building to store the Health Department mobile units, Vollmar said.
Steve Sikes, deputy director of the agency’s operations, said he hopes to be in the new building by 2025, but no specific move-in date has been set.
He said the design phase will take about six months and the building phase will take approximately 18 to 24 months.
Sikes said the Health Department needs a new office for several reasons.
“Anyone who has been in our current facility can see it’s an older facility, and we are running out of space for our employees.
“It’s not really set up well for exam rooms,” he said.
Sikes said the small parking lot has also been a problem.
“We just need a more updated facility,” he said.
Sikes said the department plans to sell its current Main Street property once the new location is open.
“We would no longer need the (current) property,” he said.
Vollmar said Archimages designed improvements to the building at 5684 Hwy. PP, which the Health Department uses for its High Ridge office.
She said the firm will not only design the new buildings, but also oversee the whole project.
“I think they definitely brought the best proposal to the table,” she said.
The Health Department also has an office at 1818 Lonedell Road in Arnold.