The vacant building at 15 S. Main Street in Tooele City may soon belong to Tooele County.
The Tooele County Commission authorized the purchase of the property for $125,000 during its Tuesday meeting. The property is part of the group of buildings north of the Tooele County building.
The county already owns the buildings north of the county building, where Valley Mental Health’s Children’s Services are located, up to 15 S. Main Street, according to Tooele County Commissioner Myron Bateman.
“Previous commissioners bought the property up to 15 S. Main,” Bateman said. “With 15 S. Main Street for sale, we want to purchase the property while it is available.”
The 15 S. Main building is part of a strategic, long-range facility plan that has not yet been committed to paper, according to Tooele County Commission Chairman Wade Bitner.
The current county building, built 43 years ago, has some challenges related to its age, according to Bitner.
“The 40-year-old boiler has some problems,” Bitner said. “The heating, cooling, and ventilation system has trouble and there are various pipes that run throughout the building that need to be replaced.”
An architect looked at the county building and gave the commission a figure of around $11 million to either remodel and upgrade the building or demolish it and build a new building, according to Bateman.
The discussion of where to conduct county business during either a remodel or rebuild turned to the block of buildings north of the county building that are owned by the county, according to Bitner.
“Those buildings are also old and in need of renovation,” Bitner said. “There has been some thought and talk about replacing those buildings and using them for county offices while work on the county building is completed. The purchase of the building at 15 S. Main would be part of a strategic, long-range plan for our facility needs.”