Editing Avery County, North Carolina (section)

===Government buildings===
Overlooking Avery Square is the historic 1912 [[Avery County Courthouse]]. The square, includes monuments to fallen peace officers, fallen firefighters and as of 2016, a large veteran's memorial. The courthouse was remodeled in 1996 and again in 2014, to add more office space and a second smaller courtroom. The courthouse is located on Shultz Circle and Glenn Hicks Lane, which was renamed from Jail Street, in honor of Avery Sheriff's Deputy Lt. Glenn H. Hicks, who was murdered in the line of duty in 2003.

The courthouse also houses local office of the North Carolina Probation and Parole Division, judges offices and chambers, district attorney's sub-office, the county map office, tax office, inspection office, register of deeds, clerk of superior court, guardian ad litem and North Carolina juvenile justice department. Connected to the courthouse is the sheriff's office and the county jail, an elections office, county 911 emergency dispatch center and magistrate's courtroom.

The county administrative building provides work space for the county manager and many other county offices such as social services, payroll, finance, veterans services, fire marshal, emergency management, waste management, technology and personnel. In 1997, a second courtroom and a small magistrate's courtroom at the courthouse was created.

The Avery County Sheriff's Office provides law enforcement protection to the entire county. The county has no police department. The Sheriff also provides security to the courts and courthouse, serves civil orders of the courts and operates the jail complex.

Other county services includes a 911 emergency dispatch center that provides service to all county law enforcement (Sheriff's office, 6 town police departments and three company police agencies, plus communications support to the NC Highway Patrol Troopers, NC Wildlife officers, state alcohol agents and state park rangers assigned locally), fire, EMS and rescue services in the county. The county building also houses county fire marshal and emergency management offices, a veteran's services office and an office of economic development, along with staffed trash collection sites throughout the county and a landfill.