QUANTICO, Va. — For the first time the town was incorporated in 1927, Quantico has an office all to its own.
Mayor Kevin Brown said the town will rent space at 337 5th Avenue in the town, which is the only municipality in the U.S. completely surrounded by a military base.
Current plans show town staffers moving into the new buidling by the end of August, with the new office being open to the public by September. The new office will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, and residents will be able to conduct daily business such as paying water bills, applying for permits, and pay taxes.
The town agreed to pay $200,000 for the space, and will use interest only owner financing for up to 3 years to allow the town additional time to find the best long term financing. The new office comes after the town’s old offices in an old Bank of America were shuttered once a new owner bought the building and decided not to lease space to the town.
More in an email from Mayor Brown:
According to my recent conversation with former mayor Mitchell Raftelis in the past several town residents allowed the town to use privately owned office space for a large portion of the town existence.
In fact, Mr. and Mrs. Raftelis provided office space to the town free of charge for fourty-nine years from 1958 to 1999. In 1999 the town moved locations and began to “rent” office space from the Bank of America branch in town.
Bank of America was also extremely generous to the town… allowing the town to “rent” nearly 1000 sq ft of office space for $10 (ten dollars) a year… an arrangement that changed to allowing the town to use the space for simply cutting the grass.
However, when the Bank of America branch closed in early 2012 the building was sold and the new owner was not interested in renting the space to the town. The town was forced to move its office to the town’s community center while we looked for a long term solution. A business owner informed me that a building advertised for rent was also for sale at which time I contacted the owner and began to discuss purchasing the property. Once the purchase price was negotiated, with help of Councilman Russell “Rusty” Kuhns, I recommended the purchase to the town council and they voted to pursue acquiring the building. I would like to personally thank the town council for making such a great decision that will benefit the town well into the future.
The Town of Quantico had 410 residents, when the 2010 Census was taken.
