Tenants in the county-owned Courtyard Square building near the courthouse in downtown Carrollton were told late last week that they needed to pack up because the building would be torn down to accommodate a new parking garage and justice center.

But members of the Carroll County Board of Commissioners and even the architect overseeing the parking deck either did not know about the future demolition or believed it was still yet to be decided upon.

According to several tenants of the building who wished to remain anonymous because of their association with the county, a representative from the courthouse and commission Chairman Bill Chappell went office to office last Friday telling tenants they have until the end of March to be out of the building.

“Because it’s going to be torn down,” said a woman who works in the building.

Previously, the Magistrate Court office and other tenants occupying the lower level of the building had been told to be out by Feb. 1. They were told to temporarily relocate behind the jail because construction traffic would make it impossible to get in and out of the office.

Commissioner Trent North said he had called Chappell multiple times for updates on the courthouse and was told “there’s a good possibility that the [Courtyard Square building] will be torn down” because of “infrastructure problems” with its location.

North said that any demolition of the building was still “unofficial.” When he was told by the Times-Georgian on Thursday that tenants had received notice that the building was to go down, he said he was not surprised but was upset the board had not been told previously.

“Any time we are destroying public buildings, the board needs to be aware of that,” North said. “Anytime we erect or destroy public buildings, we are officially establishing policy.”

North said that, in retrospect, the demolition is a good idea considering the stream of money the county had been putting into the building to ensure it met code requirements and could be secured. Nonetheless, he said, the commission should have known before the final decision was made.

Commissioner Vicki Anderson and Mark Smith, project director for Alan Bell Architects in charge of the new parking garage, said they both had been told that there was a possibility the Courtyard Square building would need to come down but were not aware it was a certainty.

“They’ve been pitching back and forth,” Smith said on Wednesday. “Nobody has made a decision one way or another.”

Smith said the plan as he understood it was to connect the parking deck to the building.

Others were comple tely unaware about the possibility of demolition.

Commissioners Ashley Hendrix and Kevin Jackson said they had not heard any talk on the matter.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Jackson said.

Chappell did not return multiple phone calls from the Times-Georgian for comment.