MOUNT VERNON — Soon it may be easier for county employees to conduct business without the distraction of having the John Freshwater contract termination hearings held in the commissioners’ office. Due to a future change in the hearing venue, Friday will be the last session held there.

Commissioner Teresa Bemiller said Tuesday the commissioners previously talked to hearing referee R. Lee Shepherd to try and determine when the hearings might conclude. She said they told him it had obviously gone on for longer than anyone expected, and asked when it might come to an end.

“With the fact the hearing was postponed on the 15th, we were a little concerned what that may mean,” Bemiller said. “I asked him if he felt it would be finished on the 22nd as previously assumed. He said, ‘No, and we have already picked an alternate site.’ Evidently they had been working on it.”

Bemiller said Shepherd did not disclose the whereabouts of the alternate site, but did say that he and the attorneys for both sides agreed to the possible new location.