DALTON, Ga. — Tear it down.

That seemed to be the consensus among members of the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners at their Monday work session about what to do with Administrative Building 2 on King Street.

Administrative Building 2 houses the commissioners’ meeting room as well as the offices of the accountability courts — Domestic Violence Court, Drug Court and Mental Health Court — and the RESOLV (Recognizing, Exposing, Stopping Our Learned Violence) Project anger management program, a nonprofit program that works with the accountability courts in Whitfield and Murray counties and the Northwest Georgia Family Crisis Center.

The building was built in the early 1940s and has a number of structural issues. The Dalton Fire Department sent the county a three-page letter last year detailing the ways the building fails to meet the fire code, including insufficient emergency lighting, use of extension cords because of insufficient electrical wiring and no central fire alarm system.

The fire department allowed the county to make stopgap changes to address those issues, including wiring smoke detectors together.

“But those measures were always meant to be temporary,” said Dalton Fire Chief Todd Pangle on Monday.

The Dalton Fire Department recently sent county officials a letter telling them the county would have to vacate the building by April 1.

“We were coming up on one year since the issues were initially identified,” said Pangle. “And it was obvious that it was not going to be brought up to code.”

Commissioners had planned to use money from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that was defeated last week to tear down that building and build a new administrative building in its place, and to renovate the Gillespie Drive gym to house the accountability court offices.

After meeting with board Chairman Lynn Laughter and County Administrator Mark Gibson, fire department officials agreed to allow the building to remain open as long as it has a “fire watch” during all hours when people are in the building. Pangle said that would be a certified firefighter or law enforcement officer who would patrol the building for fires. Pangle said the fire department will allow the county to keep the building open “as long as they are making progress” toward finding a way to vacate the building.

Whitfield County Fire Chief Edward O’Brien said he could have county firefighters rotate through that duty.

“We won’t have to add personnel, so it won’t cost the county money,” he said. “But that firefighter won’t be on fire duty.”

Commissioners said that will be a workable temporary solution.

“We can do that for two or three months until we find a place for the accountability courts,” said Commissioner Roger Crossen. “But after that, we tear that building down.”

Commissioner Barry Robbins agreed.

“We should tear that building down and not put another nickel into it,” he said.

Laughter said accountability court officials have been looking for another space but have had trouble finding anything that meets their needs. She read from a letter she said was signed by all four Superior Court judges saying the accountability courts need 14 offices, four meeting rooms and four bathrooms.

Commissioners asked if they have to provide everything the judges asked for. County Attorney Robert Smalley said they are required by law to provide “appropriate” space but he could not say what that entailed.

Public Works Director DeWayne Hunt spoke to commissioners about a decades-old policy on installing pipes along county roads. If homeowners outside the city of Dalton want tile pipes underneath the road right of way in front of their homes, the county Public Works Department will install it, charging the homeowner $10 a foot.

“That price was set in a county ordinance years ago,” said Hunt. “I’m not sure how old that law is, but it’s an old one.”

Hunt said the pipe costs the county $12.86 a foot now, and that’s not even counting the costs of the manpower and machinery to install it.

“We lose money when we do that,” he said.

And the county is also responsible for keeping those pipes unclogged and for replacing damaged pipes. Hunt asked commissioners to place a moratorium on the installation of any new pipes. Commissioners agreed to put the topic on the agenda of an upcoming meeting.