Council still pondering where to put city hall

Wrestling with budgets and lawsuits, handbooks and zoning, a city council decision about what to do about moving city hall has been sent to the sidelines. But not for long.

"Steve (Mayor Steve Wilson) has said he would like to have some kind of decision by the first of July," on the city hall issue, said City Administrator Barbara Warren.

Current facilities are still too cramped, according to Warren.

"Planning, public works and the building department are just crammed. You cannot have any kind of private discussion," she said. Developers exploring the feasibility of projects sometimes don't want to discuss their plans in an open setting.

Warren said she also does not "think it is safe for the public to be able to walk right in to the police department." This is a security and safety issue for the officers.

On the other side of the building, Warren said that the finance department has to do its d

etail work amid the bustle of customers walking in and out to pay water bills and other employees making faxes. This can be distracting.

The city has several options, said Warren, from remodeling the 9,200-square-foot bowling alley donated to the city three years ago in April, 1994 to building a second story onto the current city hall.

"I think that would be as expensive as remodeling the bowling alley," said Warren of adding a second story. The bowling alley remodel has been pegged at between $400,000 and $500,000.

Other options include adding modular offices behind the current city hall building, but Warren said "I think that would give us problems meeting the 1880s theme."

The city could sell the bowling alley and bank the proceeds for another option, she said, such as buying the existing fire hall from the Sisters Camp Sherman RFPD and remodeling that facility into a city hall "when the fire district is ready to do something different."

But there is other business that must be resolved before the city looks for new offices. The council is currently in the middle of a review of the employee handbook, which serves as a contract between the city and its employees.

Next up is a budget repair. The city is trying to stanch a negative cash flow that has bled the city's cash-carry-over reserves from $494,401 in 1992 to $299,605 at the beginning of the current fiscal year. The last budget approved by the city council would overspend revenues by another $50,000 to $100,000.

In May voters will tell the city whether they will receive any new tax resources. The budget fix awaits that decision.

Then the city will tackle the city hall issue, Warren said