It’s moving day in Demorest!
City public works employees showed up before 8 a.m. Friday to clear out city hall on Georgia Street. A U-Haul truck arrived around 8:30 to carry the remaining office furniture on the short ride up the hill to the new city hall in the historic Demorest Elementary schoolhouse.
The dozen or so workers wasted no time packing up, loading files, filing cabinets, and safes. They worked fast, disassembling counters and disconnecting a refrigerator before hauling it away.
It took less than an hour to pack up the truck and, with it, eight years of history.
Demorest moved its operations into the old bank building at the corner of Georgia Street and Central Avenue in May 2015. Now, that space will be available for commercial use as the city revitalizes the historic Depression-era schoolhouse into the center of civic activity for the town’s 1,900 residents.
Plans are to eventually move the city council chambers and police department into the old schoolhouse/new city hall. With over 24,000 square feet in the building, there is plenty of room for future development.
Demorest’s IT vendor, Ansley Communications Group Solutions (ACG), had workers at both locations Friday morinng disassembling and reassembling computer connections. The city closed down its offices Friday for the move, but officials say they’ll be back online, open for business at their new location at 250 Alabama Street on Monday.
“It’s a very joyous day because today is the 10th, and I started December 12th, so less than 90 days, we took this from just a vacant building, we built walls, we sheet rocked, we painted, we moved some things, and we are here, and it’s happening today,” said a clearly enthused – and relieved – interim city manager Mark Musselwhite. “It’s a reality, and it’s a great day for the city of Demorest!”
