The Pulaski County Assessor’s office may soon undergo some modifications as Assessor Holly VanDerAa told the commissioners this week that Maintenance Director Morry DeMarco has offered to make adjustments to the boiler room, enlarging it, to allow her office to expand into that room. DeMarco explained he would have to enlarge a doorway, removing a section of wall, but the commissioners were uncomfortable with allowing that to happen without first having an engineer check the integrity of the building.
DeMarco explained that this would be the most cost-effective plan because the assessor would not have to move her office, but would rather enlarge it. Fire safety exits and other safety requirements will be unaffected, and he estimated that the overall cost would be less than $1000.
He agreed with the commissioners that an engineer should check out the boiler room first to ensure that the integrity of the courthouse’s structure would not be compromised.
VanDerAa asked the commissioners if she could begin expanding her office into that room before the inspection is completed, but the commissioners told her that she would have to move out of the boiler room if the construction were OK’d to allow the work to be performed.
The assessor said she will return at the next meeting for their approval with the results of the engineer’s inspection.
VanDerAa has been seeking this move for more than a month because of the cramped conditions of her current office. With file cabinets and boxes stacked nearly to the ceiling, wall-to-wall, the assessor’s office must maintain these records by state law.
