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City Hall not worth renovating?
By CHASE SQUIRES, Times Staff Writer DADE CITY -- There might be some memories worth saving in City Hall, but that's about it, according to a team of consultants who evaluated the old building this spring. After the three-story building on Meridian Avenue was plagued by leaks during a tropical storm last year -- and then buried in complaints from the employees who have to work inside -- city leaders asked consultants to consider the future of the old building. Bottom line: Abandon ship. In a report presented Tuesday evening to city commissioners, consultants stated it would cost at least $2-million, maybe $2.5-million, just to bring the building up to building codes and modernize the wiring and plumbing. But the adjacent former Tampa Electric Co. building, which the city bought in January for $283,000, could be a perfect new home for under $700,000 to $900,000. That would include construction of 2,000 square feet of additional office space. As for the old building, the study by Cutler Associates and CBB Architects, both of Tampa, found: "Due to extensive repairs that will be necessary, the existing column layout, limited workspace layouts, numbers of code violations, the need to renovate the stairs, elevators and restrooms . . . it is recommended that the city abandon the building." Maybe someone might want to convert it to a hotel, consultants mused. Construction on the building, originally supposed to be a hotel, started in the 1920s but ended during the Depression. The city took over in 1941 and finished it. Architect Bill Hill said the old style of construction created a building so sturdy that removing anything for renovations would be terribly costly. "It would be cheaper just to knock it down?" Commissioner Eunice Penix asked. "If you could knock it down," Hill said. Architect John Cochran of CBB said City Hall needs a massive overhaul of electrical and plumbing systems and needs a fire alarm system. Stairways are too narrow for emergency exits, and the elevator should be replaced. The consultants praised commissioners for having the foresight to buy the TECO building when that company closed its Dade City office. Commissioners didn't make any decisions or give any indication of what they might decide to do next. Commissioner Bill Dennis said the police and fire departments have been asking for new space for so long that their needs should be considered first. In other business Tuesday, commissioners unanimously agreed -- with Commissioner Hutch Brock absent -- to ask voters for a pay raise in November. The city plans to include a question on the Nov. 5 ballot asking residents to increase City Commissioner salary from $1,200 a year to $2,400 a year, and raise the mayor's salary from $1,800 to $3,600 a year. The salaries were set in 1976.
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From today's Pasco Times Editorial Letters |
