City Hall may be doomed

City Hall could be on its deathbed.
Though officials haven’t said much in public for a few years, there’s a growing awareness that the city’s main office building needs a costly overhaul – or perhaps, some day, it ought to be replaced entirely.
City Councilor Craig Minor highlighted the concern recently when he mentioned during a Building Committee session that he wants the city to spend as little as possible on renovations to the building.
“Especially if we don’t keep this building more than another 10 years or so,” Minor said, it doesn’t make sense to pour money into upgrades.
“The quick and simple solution” to immediate needs in the building is best, Minor said.
“I think cost is what should control it,” said City Councilor Mike Rimcoski, who also urged officials to spend as little as they can on the building.
Though there aren’t any plans on the table, one obvious option is to have city government move into Memorial Boulevard Middle School if education officials follow through on a scheme to shut down the school.
Officials have said that a study to determine the needs at City Hall would cost about $78,000.
There are millions of dollars worth of renovations and updates needed within the building, they said, and it may be cheaper in the long run to erect a new City Hall rather than tackling the issues piecemeal.
“We need to get a plan about what’s going to happen in general,” said George Wallace, assistant public works director.
On the table at the moment is how to provide more space for the city’s probate court and corporation counsel’s offices.
It appears that the cheapest option is to have the city’s purchasing office move into the former youth services space on the second floor so that the two third floor offices can carve up the purchasing office for their own needs.
Wallace said the current setup includes “an inefficient use of space” and the change ought to provide the court and lawyers the additional room that they need.
The purchasing office would wind up with even more space than it has now, officials said.
The shift would not cost much, officials said, and would resolve the immediate problem.
Wallace said that public works estimates a building study would cost $78,000 but it could perhaps be combined with a $50,000 study of police space needs that’s also in the works. That might make the overall total less.
A number of officials, including Mayor Art Ward, have said they don’t want to repeat the decision they made a decade ago to pour $4 million in police renovations that are no longer adequate to the department’s needs.
A new building may make more sense financially than trying to overhaul the 45-year-old office building on North Main Street, particularly with the mall property across the street offering the potential of more lucrative commercial uses for the building or its site.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com