Onlsow County broke ground Thursday on a one stop government service center. Commissioners held the ceremonial ground breaking on a new $20.5 million government center. The new building will bring together departments like veterans services, the board of elections, and the county commissioners office. The center is being constructed in Burton Business and Industrial Park and that has some Jacksonville residents concerned moving county employees out of downtown could hurt the downtown economy.
However, officials say there's no need to be concerned.
"We'll still end up with more employees in downtown Jacksonville than we have today because we're going to move some of the social services people from the New River Shopping Center into downtown Jacksonville and that will off-set the loss of the employees,"
said County Commissioner Lionel Midgett.
The project will be paid for through a capital reserve fund with no tax rate increase. The new center is expected to be complete in about 2 years.
