Don’t pack your office any time soon.

That’s the message from some Whitfield County officials to workers after reviewing a study suggesting renovations to the county’s two downtown Dalton administrative buildings or the construction of a gleaming 66,000-square-foot complex.

The Board of Commissioners this week received a report from the Alpharetta-based engineering group MACTEC and Carlson-Jones Architects in Dalton about the buildings. MACTEC recommends the county demolish Administrative Building No. 2 at the corner of King and Selvidge streets and replace it with a four- or five-story administration complex connected to the county’s parking deck. The county would also sell Administrative Building No. 1, at the corner of Crawford Street and Thornton Avenue.

The new building would use space more efficiently, meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards and be a source of “progressive” pride for the county, said Lee Walton, a MACTEC project coordinator.

“It would certainly promote downtown Dalton development,” Walton said.

But there is a significant cost — $13.16 million — at a time when county government is cutting spending to deal with a slowing economy. County administrator Bob McLeod said the county will delay 18 capital building projects this year totaling $7.5 million. McLeod also ordered a hiring freeze, employees will not get a mid-year raise and the county could furlough workers one day a month later this year if the economy does not improve.

That bleak reality is not lost on commission members.

“We know what we’ve got is not what we really need, but we also don’t need $13 million worth of debt right now either,” commission chairman Mike Babb said. “We have the information and it’s good to have a plan. I think with the economic circumstances it just would be something we’d put way down the priority list.”

Commissioner Randy Waskul agrees. The county’s five-year capital plan has $950,000 earmarked through 2013 for “major preservation and upgrades” of Administrative Buildings No. 1 and No. 2. Babb said the county may spend money on minor repairs, but any new construction will be several years down the road.

“I’d like to have a much nicer house,” Babb said. “I can’t afford it, so therefore I’m going to stay in the one I’ve got. The same thing is true. I’m not sure the citizens would appreciate buildings being built at this time right now.”

Mike McCarthy works in building No. 2 with the Conasauga Circuit Public Defender’s Office. He listened to MACTEC’s presentation. He was impressed with the design, saying it would be a more secure building.

The administrative buildings are actually former churches that weren’t built to be offices. Building No. 1 opened as the First Presbyterian Church of Dalton in 1972. Twenty years later, the county renovated the three-story, 19,000-square-foot building and turned it into office space for 64 employees.

Building No. 2 dates to the 1920s. In 2003, the Central Church of Christ sold the 25,000-square-foot building to the county. The board of commissioners holds its business meetings in the former sanctuary, while the building also houses the Conasauga Drug Court and the Public Defender’s Office. In all, 28 employees work there.

In July 2008, commissioners paid MACTEC $33,750 to complete a study of the two buildings. The study found building No. 1 was generally structurally sound, but showed the wear and tear of 36 years. The building is not energy efficient and the space organization is “disjointed.” Replacing some aging or deteriorating building parts would cost a “significant” amount of money.

Building No. 2 is in worse shape. The report found “overall space quality and utilization is poor.” Problems include flooding into the basement, inadequate meeting space for the county commission and a lack of handicapped accessibility.