OEDC, County Eye New Polling Location After Early Voting Cut Short in Olney
Young County Commissioners visited the newly updated tag office at the Olney Sub-Courthouse on Feb. 24 and considered whether to apply for state funding to create a permanent polling place for Olney, whose voters were deprived of nearly a full week of early voting last month for lack of a location.
Olney Economic Development Corporation executive director Tom Parker and OEDC board members Tammy Montgomery and Jackie Voyles met with Commissioners Jimmy Wiley and Alan Craig, and County Judge Win Graham to show off upgrades to the building on South Grand Avenue, which the County leases from the City of Olney.
The County, through its rent payments, funded new paint, windows, HVAC, and flooring for the century-old building, installed last year. The license plate and vehicle registration “tag” office moved to the former quarters of the Olney Police Department, which can be accessed off East Hamilton. The new office needs new bulletproof window glass, security cameras, and security doors, as well as a state inspection to become operable, and may one day feature a drive-up window, Mr. Parker told the Commissioners and Judge Graham.
The County officials said they were impressed by the changes to the building that houses the County Probation and Bond Supervision Offices, Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace, Tax Assessor- Collector, and County Courtroom. “It’s great,” Mr. Wiley. “It will be an amazing addition to the County.”
The OEDC fronted the costs for the upgrades, which will be repaid over time through increases in the lease payments the County makes to the City of Olney. “The great thing is to have County services available to Olney residents,” Judge Graham said, noting that “the side of the building was falling on people walking in the door.”
“The big thing is it’s a safe place for people working in the tag office,” he said. “They deal with money.”
Mr. Wiley also noted that the tag office personnel sometimes deal with irate “deadbeat dads” who are barred from renewing their vehicle registrations if they are behind on their child support. “Sometimes those people get very angry,” he said.
Ms. Montgomery and Ms. Voyles agreed that the expenditures on the courthouse, totalling more than $400,000, were worth the investment.
“It’s beautiful,” Ms. Montgomery said.
Mr. Parker suggested that the courthouse could also be configured to accommodate voting machines in a small room off the main hallway, since the area already has the necessary secure broadband internet connection that they had to install for the tag office.
“I found out I could get money for doors … to secure the building,” Mr. Parker said. “There is federal money for that, and we could make it a polling place.”
Early voting in Olney was available for only four of the nine designated early voting days this year because the Olney Community Library & Arts Center was under construction, and the Olney Civic Center was being used for Keep Olney Beautiful’s Father-Daughter Dance fundraiser on Feb. 21. Early voting was available in the City of Graham throughout the entire early voting period.