Officials look at city hall

[Guest guest]

Officials look at city hall

By Braden cbraden@...

Posted-Wednesday, February 15, 2006 9:00 AM EST

http://www.keynoter.com/articles/2006/02/17/news/news11.txt

Buying land or renovations on the table

Key West city employees could soon be breathing sighs of relief -

literally.

The current City Hall at and Simonton streets suffers from

mold and other deterioration problems that are causing it to fall

apart, making it a top priority for the Key West City Commission.

Assistant City Manager said the current building is not

likely to collapse immediately " unless it's a Category 3 hurricane;

then it won't take it. "

However, undeniably something soon needs to be done to remedy the

situation, which has caused several city employees to file workers'

compensation claims due to health problems related to mold.

And city officials need to figure out where funding will come from,

considering the hurricane-fraught budget yields almost no extra

leeway for such a huge expense.

The cost is " all going to depend on where the City Commission

decides to put City Hall, " said. " We'd probably have to get a

bond or we might swap out some land. It all depends on the option. "

According to , cost estimates range from $11 million to $20

million, but he expects the highest cost would be if the commission

decides to renovate the current City Hall.

The commission is expected to review all of its options, including

renovation of the current site, as well as looking into other city-

owned sites to limit property costs.

Up for discussion are the Public Works facility on Palm Avenue; and

the men's softball field and Housing Authority property, which are

both on Kennedy Drive.

City staff is also exploring whether the Silver Eagle Distributors

building on North Roosevelt would be a viable option. The property

is on five acres of land, however, only a little over one acre is

usable by the city since most of area is environmentally sensitive

wetlands.

In total the city would purchase 45,000 square feet of usable space,

including the 27,000-square-foot building, for $3 million. Cost

estimates to renovate the large warehouse into a new city hall are

not yet in.

The commission is scheduled to review its options at a special

meeting Thursday at 6 p.m. at Old City Hall on Greene Street.