WASHINGTON

The Washington County supervisor vote was unanimous Tuesday to make an offer to purchase the federally owned Washington County Memorial Reserve Center to house its emergency service operations. The Center has not been in use for several years and the board made it clear “we want it all.” The “all” includes two large buildings plus sufficient space for future additions, if needed.

Official action was to proceed with the purchase plan. Price will, as noted last week, be up to the federal owners.

The board also noted that it wanted a purchase with no restraints; a similar sale in another county required that the building be used only for the stated reason for the purchase.

The county’s plan is to house emergency service offices as well as house emergency and other county owned vehicles used by ambulance, police and secondary roads departments.

In an item tabled from last week, the board approved revisions in contracts for the Orchard Hill remodeling project that lower the budget shortfall from about $180,000 to $50,000, which can be covered by the contingency provision.

In other business, the board approved hiring Margaret Englert as Collections Coordinator for the County Attorney’s office, effective October 14, at $22.59 hourly; accepted the quarterly report from the Veterans Affairs department that has handled 702 case files of which 46 were in person; and, after discussing member schedules, approved a work session for October 14 and likely action at the regular October 15 meeting regarding a special election in March for voter approval of an emergency services tax levy. The major issue in the levy is the amount, which could be 50 cents as a minimum or 75 cents to not only provide for current needs but also future ones.