Bell County Commissioner Louie Minor said Monday that ground will mostly likely be broken in the new county annex building some time in April 2024.
This is ahead of a Town Hall meeting Wednesday that will be held at the Killeen Arts and Activities Center at 6 p.m. which will include an update from architect Kelly Garcia of Garcia Architects, a firm from Temple which is also the architect of record for Bell County.
Both Garcia and Minor will be on hand to answer questions.
“We’re anticipating to have a full set of plans by the beginning of November and to have it bid out some time in January, hopefully the first of January. And hopefully have a contractor selected and have ground broken sometime in April,” Minor said in a phone call Monday.
Minor said the new annex will better be able to serve the public.
“Our old buildings are separated first of all. And they were built in I believe the 50s,” he said. “It’s going to consolidate everything in one building. We’ll have a one stop shop.”
It’s been almost a year since the First National Bank at 507 N. Gray St. in Killeen was demolished, which will be the site of the new county annex building.
The new annex is slated to be a $10 million, 30,000-square-foot facility, and would house county government offices. The current Bell County annex in Killeen is on Priest Drive, and houses justice of the peace offices, vehicle registration and similar offices.
In June 2022, the Killeen City Council approved the removal of the former bank building from the historical overlay district through Ordinance 22-046.
First National built and moved into a new headquarters building at the corner of Trimmier Road and Interstate 14 around the end of 2021.
In July 2022, Bell County Commissioners approved an interlocal agreement with Killeen to build the new annex building.
Minor said the empty lots at Priest Drive will be sold off by Bell County.
“As far as the empty buildings, we’re still in the process of figuring out what to do with those,” Minor said about the empty buildings on Priest Drive.
Minor said it was important to hold the town hall to let Killeen residents know that it was still happening.
“The main thing I want to get out to the public is that we are in fact moving forward with building a new Killeen annex to serve our community. It will be breaking ground in 2024,” he said. “I encourage the public to come out. There’s still time — maybe if you want a different colored stone. You still have input if you want.”
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