by Katie Russell
The U.S. Post Office on South Broad Street has recently become a new administrations building. As part of Transylvania County’s plans to consolidate it’s departments in a campus-like setting, the building now contains finance, human resources, and general administrations offices.
“The concept is to try and centralize many of our service functions into one convenient location,” said Mike Hawkins, Chairman of the Transylvania County Commissioners.
The plan began with a space use study done in 2005 as way to have all the county’s departments in a close, easily accessible location. The new compound is arranged with administrations building, Register of Deeds and Tax Administration Building on the northwest side, Social Services and the Health Departments on the southeast end, and the Board of Elections office is further south.
Convenience for citizens was a huge part of this plan. By having plenty of nearby parking, the goal was to create a “one-stop shopping” feel to the most commonly used services in Transylvania County. Citizens will also no longer have to go through court house security measures.
“I can see how it could be more convenient,” said Dolly McCall, a teacher at Brevard High School, and former Department of Social Services worker.
However, convenience is not the only great thing about the new set up, there now a new green space featuring a water display to represent “The Land of the Waterfalls.” The green space was created so that the county would be better represented to visitors.
In order to make the new space seem even more welcoming, they’ve moved to the meeting space to the old children’s section of the library. This provides a view of the green space.
“This meeting space is part of the old children’s wing of the library,” said Hawkins, “It’s a very open, bright space with lots of windows. We’ve gone to a lot of energy and effort to make it a very welcoming place for meetings.”
Transylvania County is working on being more user friendly towards it’s citizens as well as becoming more welcoming to it’s visitors.