Donna and Mike Robbins’ waiting game may be ending soon.

The building committee of the Mower County Board of Commissioners met Friday morning and instructed attorney Paul Sween to take the county’s counter-offer to acquire the so-called “Robbins block” property to the mother-and-son owners of Robbins Furniture and Design Gallery.

“The building committee met Thursday with the construction manager and architects to talk over the final cost estimates for the jail and justice center project,” county coordinator Craig Oscarson said.

At another meeting Friday morning with Sween, county’s legal counsel on property acquisitions, the decision was made to make a counter-offer to the Robbinses.

According to Austin, Sween is expected to have that offer prepared in writing by Tuesday.

Only Tuesday, Aug. 12, Donna Robbins attended the regular meeting of the county commissioners and expressed her frustration and impatience at the commissioners.

“My son is the patient one; I’m not,” Robbins told the commissioners. “I think we have been extremely patient and all I can say today is that frustration reigns supreme.”

What the county’s counter-offer entails is unknown, but sources close to the process say both sides are “far apart.”

Ray Tucker, 2nd District county commissioner, won a $1.5 million grant from the city of Austin during negotiations between the county and city last year.

Obtaining the grant was the key to a 3-2 decision by the county commissioners to locate the proposed new 128-bed county jail and justice center in downtown Austin.

The Robbins block was the first site mentioned by the county as a possible location for an expanded Mower County Jail seven years ago.

At the time, architects suggested a skyway across First Street Northeast to the Robbins Furniture Store and Design Gallery and converting the three-story, 27,000 square-foot building into jail cells and related justice/corrections offices.

However, the idea was quickly abandoned and county officials and staffed searched for another jail over-crowding and court security solution.

The new reasons given by county commissioner Ray Tucker and county staff to acquire the Robbins block have included using it as a possible geothermal site, as well as off-street parking and a staging area for building materials for the new center.

Most recently, test wells have revealed the block may not be the ideal site for geothermal uses.

Watching closely from the sidelines is the Austin Main Street Project’s Sarah Douty.

The AMSP rehabilitates and redevelops downtown properties for resale and use to grow the retail economy.

Before the county commissioners officially agreed to seek to acquire the Robbins block, the AMSP made a late effort to convince them to allow it to be turned into a retail office, shop and apartment complex. Possible anchor tenants mentioned were the Salvation Army Austin Corps and Austin Daily Herald.

The county commissioners said “no” to the idea.

As the future of the Robbins block continues in limbo, AMSP’s director Douty said the agency is still “interested” in what the Robbins property could become.

“I know there is still interest in seeing all properties developed in the downtown area,” Douty said. “The attitude has not changed at all that this could once again become a productive retail area.”