Vice Mayor Reeves briefed the Murfreesboro City Council on a months-long joint city–county school office site-selection process and asked the council to encourage the county to buy the Southgate property and invite the city to participate in negotiating a formula for a joint building. The council voted to approve that request, with one member voting no.

The joint committee reviewed about 20 sites since February and narrowed the list through multiple rounds of site visits and secret ballots, Reeves said. Committee members reported estimated space needs of roughly 17,000 square feet for the city and approximately 40,000 square feet for the county, with about 9,000 square feet identified as shared space. Charlie Johnson, the committee’s architect, prepared cost comparisons for one-, two-, three- and four-story designs and examined parking implications.

Why it matters: county officials told the committee they may need more acreage for future expansion; the county’s interest in buying additional acres at Southgate — officials discussed 7 acres as a minimum for the originally planned one-story building and noted the county has considered purchasing up to 15 acres — shapes both cost and the negotiation over who pays for what.

Reeves described the council’s vote as nonbinding on city finances. “All it would do would say, we approve of the county purchasing this site, and that we hope that they will invite us to participate in trying to develop a formula where this structure... could be built,” Vice Mayor Reeves said. Reeves and other committee members emphasized the motion would not commit the city to any payment at this stage.

Councilmember Huda asked whether the committee had analyzed whether a joint building would save money compared with renovating the existing city school offices, saying, “I was hoping what would come out of this... was a study of the feasibility of both of both the city and the county schools being in the same building.” Reeves and several council members responded that the committee’s charge was site selection, and that feasibility and formula negotiations would be handled by the city manager, school administrators and the county if the county proceeds with purchase.

Discussion recorded by the committee included: the trade-off between acreage and building height (committee members said multi-story buildings often added $150,000–$250,000 to estimated costs, depending on parking requirements), the desirability of a centrally located site, and a county preference for securing more land to preserve future expansion options. Reeves noted the selection process included input from school administrations and the architect on long-range square-footage needs.

The council action: at the meeting the motion asked the council to “encourage the county to purchase the South Gate property and that the county invite the city to join with them in developing a formula to build a joint city county school office building,” and to make clear that “there is no financial commitment from this council at this time.” The motion passed on roll call: Councilmember Bratcher—Aye; Councilmember Huda—No; Councilmember Pitter—Aye; Vice Mayor Reeves—Aye; Councilmember Ross—Aye; Councilmember Wax—Aye; Mayor Jackson—Aye.

Next steps: Reeves and several council members said formula negotiations should be led by the city manager, school-system leadership and county representatives rather than the site-selection committee; the council vote asks the county to begin that conversation but does not bind the city to a contribution.