CAIRO — The Grady County Board of Commissioners may soon be moving into a new home following a tentative decision to repurpose a former senior center into an administrative building.

County Administrator Buddy Johnson said a proposed move into the former 17th Avenue senior center building, vacant since the Southwest Georgia (SOWEGA) Council on Aging vacated the premises earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, would be a “smart move.”

“I am asking the commission to go ahead and give this a thumbs up to make this start happening,” the county administrator said at Tuesday’s commission meeting.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the move pending a legal review.

Johnson said Grady County’s current set up, as one of the few counties in southwest Georgia that houses their commissioners in their courthouse, is unusual.

“Most commissioners’ offices are separated,” he said. “They have their own administrative building. Part of that is because you don’t generally want your political subdivisions inside your courthouse. Your courthouse is for court and state court business and things of that nature.”

Johnson said the former senior center building is a “COVID-19-safe” environment that would allow the commissioners and anyone in attendance at their meetings adequate space to be seated a socially distant six feet apart. Several recent commission meetings have not taken place in their usual location in the commissioners’ boardroom on the first floor of the Grady County courthouse, but rather in the larger second-floor courtroom to allow for social distancing.

The change also would remove commission employees, currently located near the front entrance of the courthouse, from unnecessary courtroom traffic that they say can distract them from their normal duties.

A previously scheduled renovation of the county-owned building, constructed in the late 1990s, can be altered to make any changes to the structure the commissioners deem necessary. Any expenses related to the move or the renovation can be covered by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Johnson said.

Johnson said the ideal post-move situation would be for the county magistrate and probate judges to share the commissioners’ current boardroom as a courtroom, though if the magistrate chooses to keep their office outside the Grady County courthouse then the commissioners’ current location may be given to the tax assessor’s office. Johnson said the tax assessor’s office has long complained of a lack of space in its current location.

“We can’t make this courthouse any bigger,” said Commissioner June Knight, “but we can by leaving.”

The move, if ultimately approved, would not happen until later this year, possibly in December.