ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 14, 1996 TAG: 9612160035
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
A long-awaited moving day for Montgomery County social services and Health Department workers arrived Friday.
Moving vans were backed up to the doors of the new county Health and Human Services building on Pepper Street all day. Employees clad in blue jeans dodged boxes and desk-toting moving guys in the corridors.
There was a manic mood around the $3.4 million building, designed to centralize offices and primarily financed by a 1993 bond referendum.
"It's mass confusion right now. But we're elated to be here," said Dan Farris, county social services director.
Social services closed its doors Thursday and Friday to move up the hill from its old site on Roanoke Street. Farris said the office will reopen Monday at 8 a.m.
"I think we have everything here," he said, surveying his new suite. "It's just a matter of finding where it is."
The scene was identical in the building's opposite wing, where employees of the county's Health Department unpacked boxes and organized their new headquarters.
"It's wonderful. Working in a new environment excites you," said Dr. Jody Hershey, New River Valley health department director.
The Health Department also shut down its operations for the move, which will consolidate several service sites and the district headquarters at the new building.
"It's one-stop shopping," Hershey said. Having all employees and service providers under one roof will be better for clients, he added.
The new building also offers Hershey's employees much more space than their previous locations.
It was coincidence that both agencies moved to the new building at the same time. The Health and Human Services building was completed in September, and some Health Department and county employees had already moved in.
Social services' occupancy of a building that was tailor-made for the agency was delayed while a last-minute landlord-tenant disagreement over rent was negotiated with the county.
Both sides are still hoping the state will contribute a larger share of the new building's $71,000 annual rent. Social services moved in under a temporary financial deal with the county, but without having a formal lease.
The Health Department's transition was easier, Hershey said. His department's delay in moving involved waiting on final touches to be put on the building and the arrival of new office equipment.
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