The Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors is weighing its options as parking at the new Lauderdale County Government Center continues to generate complaints from the public.

At issue is the accessibility of the building for those with disabilities and the distance residents must walk from handicapped parking areas to the government offices they need to visit.

Currently, public access to the building is limited to the front doors, which was done intentionally to assist with security. Offices for the tax assessor and tax collector, however, are at the back of the building, forcing residents to walk through the building to renew car tags or make tax payments.

Parking behind the building is also available, but the rear entry, which is just a few feet from both tax offices, requires a key fob to open and is for county employees only.

In a meeting Monday, County Administrator Chris Lafferty said he recently received an email from a citizen asking for the rear door to be made useable by the public.

“This citizen was in support of opening up the back because the proximity to the tax assessor’s office,” he said.

Supervisor Kyle Rutledge said the board had previously discussed adding several handicapped parking spots in the back of the building and opening the rear door to the public but did not yet have an estimate on what that would cost. Some modifications would be needed to go that route, he said, and supervisors need to know the numbers to see if that is a viable solution.

Opening the rear door, however, will compromise the county’s security plan for the new building, Supervisor Josh Todd said. Keeping public access limited to the front of the building has been the plan since the beginning, he said, and adding a rear entrance will make it more difficult for sheriff’s deputies to keep the building secure.

Originally, Todd said, the plan had been to completely fence in parking behind the building, but that had somehow changed during construction.

“In the original designs this was blocked off,” he said. “That’s why we had gates back there was because this was supposed to be blocked off.”

Supervisor J.J. Anders, who joined the board in January and was not part of the courthouse construction, said the board is faced with a difficult decision. Supervisors can opt to open the rear door, making the building more accessible to mobility-challenged residents but compromising the security of the courthouse, he said, or they can choose to keep the rear door closed and make elderly and handicapped residents walk.

Supervisor Joe Norwood said the board could also look at removing some of the landscaping and concrete walkway between the Government Center and the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department and turning that space into handicapped parking. The space is next to the ramp leading up to the main entrance and is much closer to the building than existing handicapped parking, he said.

The additional spots would also maintain the security of the building, Norwood said, and the county could then look at fencing in the back parking as originally intended.

Board Attorney Lee Thaggard said his recollection is that the rear parking fencing raised an issue with the city of Meridian over access for emergency vehicles. If the board plans to move to add the fencing back in, he said, there will need to be some conversations to better understand what the issue is and how to resolve it.

Rutledge said the board will discuss the matter further in an upcoming work session. In the meantime, Lafferty said he will contact the city to see what regulations or ordinances may be involved in the decision.