The coming few months could make for some significant milestones in a number of big-ticket capital projects that are currently on the to-do list of Alamance County’s government.
Early next month, the county’s administrators expect to present the board of commissioners with a contract for a much-discussed ambulance base that will ultimately serve the county’s easternmost reaches. Then, at some point by the end of the calendar year, the board’s current members will have a chance to revisit a $37 million courthouse expansion that received the all clear from a different lineup of commissioners in the summer of 2024.
In the midst of these high-level decisions, workers are putting the finishing touches on an eight-figure overhaul of a former industrial building that will eventually house the county’s 9-1-1 center and other emergency services. Meanwhile, the local tourism development authority is preparing to embark on a dramatic makeover of its own as it seeks to transform a historic home that was recently home to a bank into a fetching new visitors’ center for Alamance County.
Emergency Services Center
Of these four projects, the one that’s currently closest to fruition involves the conversion of a facility that BD Diagnostics once operated in Burlington into a new home for the county’s 9-1-1 center and other emergency services.
The county originally purchased this building, which overlooks I-85/40, in the opening months of 2023 in order to merge the now-separate emergency communication centers that serve Alamance County and the city of Burlington. The county had previously received $15 million from the N.C. General Assembly to combine these operations, although the city eventually backed out of the project as its total expense escalated beyond the state’s allocation.
The county has nevertheless gone ahead with the project, which has been christened the Alamance County Emergency Services Center, to provide a new set of digs for the county’s 9-1-1 operators, the local fire marshal’s office, and other emergency services.
According to Brian Baker, an assistant county manager who has overseen this endeavor, said that workers in the county’s employ are currently using the balance of the General Assembly’s largesse to “harden” the building against both natural and manmade disasters.
“‘Hardening’ the building is just making it more secure so it can withstand the sort of disaster that it will need to operate through,” Baker went on to explain in an interview. “This involves strengthening the windows and reinforcing the walls of the building.”
Baker added that he expects the work on this building to wrap up next spring and will try to give the commissioners a tour of the facility before it opens for business.
Eastern EMS base
Even before Baker whisks the county’s elected leaders through the new 9-1-1 center, he expects to present them with another proposal that will jumpstart an altogether different kind of emergency services facility.
For the past several years, the county’s leaders have been scouting out sites for a new ambulance base to serve the fast-growing neighborhoods within Mebane and the surrounding area.
At one point, the county planned to set up this station on land that it had acquired from the Alamance County Rescue Unit along Mebane’s Third Street Extension. Two years ago, the county’s administrators tentatively agreed to swap this parcel with the Koury Corporation of Greensboro, which wanted to use the land as an alternate entrance into the residential portion of a massive mixed-use development. In exchange, the company pledged to acquire a roomier site off of NC 119 to accommodate the new ambulance base.
The Koury Corporation nevertheless jumped the gun when it presented its plans for the mixed-use development to Mebane’s city council in December of 2024. The company had portrayed the proposed land swap with the county as a fait accompli, which led to some furious back peddling by county officials. It wasn’t until the summer of 2025 that the board of commissioners finally signed off on the land swap. In the meantime, it took the Koury Corporation nearly another year to firm up the purchase of the alternate site that it had promised to secure for the county along NC 119.
The county went on to file a formal warranty deed in July that formalized the deal with the Koury Corporation. Since then, the county’s administrators have sought out a company to oversee the construction of the new EMS base, which is ultimately expected to cost about $5 million.
Baker has told The Alamance News that he and his colleagues plan to approach the commissioners on November 2 to recommend that the county enlist Cary-based Bobbitt Construction to design and build the new ambulance station.
The assistant county manager added that the same firm has previously performed up to par on the multimillion-dollar renovation of a building that now houses the county’s planning, inspections, and permitting departments. In this case, he said Bobbitt will be tasked with developing the new ambulance station from scratch.
“There’s no design, yet,” he added. “But we’d like it to have two ambulance bays. We also want it to house our ambulance maintenance shop [which is currently located off of South Maple Street in Graham].”
Baker noted that this project is expected to take about a year to complete once the design work begins in November.
Other projects
Baker conceded that the county doesn’t have a direct role in the conversion of an old Victorian home along South Main Street in Graham to serve as an eye-catching new visitors’ center.
Originally built for a daughter of the prominent local industrialist E.M. Holt, this dwelling was acquired by Bank of America in 1993 and transformed into a branch office that remained in operation until 2024. The county subsequently acquired the property on behalf of the Alamance County’s Tourism Development Authority with $650,000 in funds that the bureau had stashed away in its piggy bank.
Baker said that the authority has yet to begin work on its overhaul of this structure, which will likewise be bankrolled by funds from a special sales tax on hotel and motel accommodations that’s used strictly to promote travel and tourism.
In the meantime, Baker acknowledged that he expects to appear before the commissioners at some point before the end of the calendar year to see if its current members want to proceed with a $37 million expansion of the Judge J.B. Allen Jr. Court House in Graham.
A previous board of commissioners had tentatively agreed to proceed with this project in the summer of 2024 using the proceeds from a proposed 1 cent tax hike that wasn’t to take effect for another two years.
The board that made this non-binding decision included just two of the five people who currently serve on the board of commissioners. One of these two veteran board members was commissioner Pam Thompson, who cast the lone vote of dissent against the majority’s resolution to proceed with the courthouse expansion.
Baker said that if the board’s current membership decides to follow through with this project, it will remedy a number of issues that have local court system has with its existing county-owned accommodations.
“It would be a three-story building with four new court rooms,” he added. “It would allow us to move juries back into the courthouse [from their temporary quarters on the other side of West Elm Street] and provide secure parking areas for judges and other officials.”
