During the June 24 Williamson County Commissioners Court meeting, Commissioner Valerie Covey proposed a 10-year agreement with the city of Georgetown that would turn a piece of county land into a parking lot.

According to the agreement the city would demolish the buildings at Eighth and Martin Luther King streets, pave and landscape the lot, and add irrigation systems at its own cost in order to be able to use the property for additional parking.

Instead of selling any property or doing a joint project, this would allow [the city] to take down the buildings that are theretheyre old metal buildingsat their cost, pave it and put their required landscaping and such, Covey said.

The county purchased the land for a possible jail expansion. Precinct 1 Commissioner Lisa Birkman worried that it would be difficult to get the land back if the county decides to use it because of the length of the agreement.

We spent millions on this for a different purpose than for it to be a parking lot, she said. I just have this worry that even though it says 10 years, once they get a parking lot in there, theyre going to be very upset, and it will be difficult for us to take down.

Completion of repairs to the parking garage between Third, Fourth and Rock streets, which has been under constructionsince early 2011, was also a concern, Birkman said.

Bob Daigh, Williamson County senior director of infrastructure,said he anticipates the contractor will be 100 percent completed with repairs by mid-July, but said part of the litigation process is structural testing that may include drilling through the garage.

We have been notified at a very late date that one of the litigants is interested in running some tests so we believe that it will take probably the last two weeks in July for them to come and do their testing, Daigh said.

If the agreement is approved the city would begin work on the land Sept. 1 or after the parking garage re-opens.

Its a temporary thing that will help Georgetown, Covey said. It will also help Williamson County because it will improve our property for one thing, but it will also take out those buildings that need to be gone, and where that dirt is, that will all be a parking lot.

Connie Watson, Williamson County public affairs manager, said no date has been set to approve the agreement.