JOHN COFFELT Staff Writer

The temporary measure of consolidating the two Coffee County Health Departments into the Tullahoma clinic until the brand new facility can be built may take a bit longer than expected. The state is reviewing the process by which the county must choose an architect for the project.

County Mayor Judd Matheny said that the state is in the process of reviewing the selecting of professional services. He is confident that the county followed the proper procedure, but since there are federal funds being used on the process, the state is giving the selection extra scrutiny.

“The health department is considerably delayed,” Matheny said.

He added that road construction that will take a portion of the parking lot at the Tullahoma clinic will begin soon, so the county will need to address parking there.

The Capital Outlay Committee, the subset of the County Commission that manages the use, construction and upkeep of county property, selected St. John Engineering and its partner Hearth Architecture in February after a selection process that included a request for proposal and interviews with the firms who submitted proposals.

Chairman of Capital Outlay Dennis Hunt said at the July 6 meeting of the committee that because the project uses American Rescue Plan Act funds the state is adding the additional oversite.   

“We are just in a state of limbo,” he said.

Hunt said that the county was told in several meetings with the state that the county would be required to select an architect for the project.

“They (now) want to back up and review the selection,” Hunt said. “We are confident that we followed the rules that were in place.”

The planned health department will be located in the Joint Park on Highway 55. A minimum of five acres will be allocated for the TCAT campus. The proposed $4.6 million consolidated Coffee County Health Department clinic is planned to be a 14,000 square foot facility. Funding is said to come from ARP money, grants and the sale of county properties at auction.    

The former Coffee County Health Department located at 800 Parks St. in Manchester sold at auction July 8, with Coffee County Realty’s Steve Jernigan stating the facility sold for $481,000. He added that the buyer requested not to be disclosed until sometime early this week. This makes the second commercial property that the county has sold recently. The former Arrowhead Museum sold in December of 2022 for $2.5 million.