Supervisors on Monday authorized publishing a public notice to advertise to receive on Jan. 21 bids on a $3 million Department of Human Services building that also will house county Justice Court facilities.

The public notice ran in the Dec. 16 issue of the Picayune Item.

The building will be a 16,000 square foot structure that will, when completed, do away with temporary housing of county offices in trailers at the Millard location and also consolidate county welfare services in one location, said County Administrator Adrian Lumpkin.

The structure will be constructed at Millard on property owned by the county near the Pearl River County jail.

The structure will house offices and a courtroom for the county justice court system and an office for the veterans service officer.

The location of the structure prompted on Sept. 14 a debate among supervisors that wound up with a 3-to-1 vote to construct the huge structure at Millard in the geographical center of the county.

Supervisors Anthony Hales, Sandy Kane Smith and Patrick Lee voted to place it at Millard and Supervisor Hudson Holliday voted to place it in Picayune.

Holliday argued that it should be placed in Picayune, which is the center of the population, and Hales, Smith and Lee argued that it should be in the geographical center of the county.

They also argued that the county already has land there for the project so there would be no need to purchase additional property.

Holliday cast the only vote against the location.

Most of the funding for the building will come from state and federal sources, and FEMA and MEMA must sign off on it before construction begins.

Lumpkin said it will probably take a year and a half from the bid date before the building is completed.

The bid will be awarded to the lowest and best bidder, the notice said.