Lauderdale County offices began relocating to their new home on 22nd Avenue this past week, and the movers are already ahead of schedule.

In a work session Thursday, County Administrator Chris Lafferty told supervisors he needs to alter the moving timetable to adapt to the movers’ speed. So far, he said, the county, chancery and justice courts, as well as the tax assessor, public defender and part of the district attorney’s offices have been moved to the new space.

Lafferty said he plans to have the movers tackle the first part of what is expected to be an arduous relocation of the county archives and history offices from the Raymond P. Davis Annex into the old courthouse.

“Overall, your move is going really, really good,” he said.

Furniture, however, continues to be an issue as some county officials want their current furniture be included in the move. Prior to bidding out the moving service, supervisors asked each department to provide a scope of what in their offices would need to be moved and used that to structure the bid package. The scope has since expanded beyond what the moving service quoted.

The additional work includes both moving the old furniture into the new space and relocating the newly purchased desks, tables and chairs that were bought for the departments to use. Lafferty said supervisors will need to give him guidance on how to handle the extra labor costs.

Supervisor Joe Norwood said he believed the officials demanding to keep their furniture should bear the cost of moving it. Supervisor Jonathan Wells agreed.

“I’m with Joe,” he said. “Bill them.”

As the county judiciary gets settled in its new home, Lafferty said he wanted to float the idea of hiring a new IT person to help the courts run their systems. Just about everything in the new building runs off of computers, he said, including the heating and cooling, audio and visual systems and more.

“Every problem that comes up in that building is going to require IT,” he said.

The current IT staff will already be hard pressed to keep up with the demand, he said, and the additional person could help with other county issues when the courts are not in session.

Board Attorney Lee Thaggard said he did not see a way for the courts to fully function in their new space without the help of an IT person.

Supervisor Josh Todd said he isn’t discounting the idea of an additional IT person but would like to wait until everyone is settled into the new space to see if the need is truly as dire as predicted. It may be rough at first, he said, but things will likely settle down as people get familiar with the new systems and how they work.

The Board of Supervisors will meet for a final time in the Raymond P. Davis Annex at 9 a.m. Monday for their second regularly scheduled meeting of the month. Beginning Nov. 1, future meetings and work sessions will be held in the new space.

The county is set to hold a grand opening ceremony for the new government center at 10 a.m. on Nov. 6. Supervisors will recess from their regularly scheduled meeting to hold the ceremony before returning to finish the county’s business.