City building renovations workshop Thursday
By SHANNON CRABTREE scrabtree@leader-news.com

Plans for city building renovations as well as a new animal control facility will be the focus of a council workshop session Thursday night.

Both the police department expansion and the animal control building are close to being ready for bidding, City Manager John Steelman said in his letter to Council.

The workshop, set for 5:30 p.m. Thursday in City Hall Chambers at 315 E. Jackson, is open to the public. No formal votes will be taken in the discussion only session.

An estimated $572,000 has been allocated for expansion and re-roofing of the police department, a building first constructed in 1974.

This project will expand the jail and dispatch areas in addition to providing a new sally port (covered and secure drive) which will block the current drive between the police station and City Hall.

The dispatch office on the south side of the building will also be expanded 10 feet to accommodate a bathroom.

The old sally port area will then be converted into offices and record storage areas.

Designs for a new, estimated $300,000 animal control building are ready.

The work is part of a $2.9 million municipal building improvement plan backed with a combination of fund balance dollars and $1.65 million in Certificates of Obligation.

In the same effort, City Council has currently allocated $1 million to renovate the El Campo Civic Center, and will close the building Augustthrough October of this year for the project.

At the workshop, Council is expected to consider everything from a new roof to changing the appearance of the entrance and a possible dance floor to better air-conditioning and improved restroom facilities.

"Council will have to pick and choose what they will allow," Community Service Director Leonard Sternadel said. "There are a lot of ideas - each drives the price."

Whatever happens, it will have to take place in a 90-day time frame to coincide with the scheduled building closure.

That's a tight time frame, RWS Architect Malcolm Gaus told Council during its October workshop on the issue, adding it means all areas including the El Campo Museum of Natural History will have to be ready for work on day one (please see related story).

The entire 41,170 squarefoot building will be reroofed with virtually all air-conditioning systems replaced - an action that hasn't taken place since the building opened as a K-Mart in 1979.

To make the system more efficient, duct work will be installed, eliminating the "air dumps" of the current system along with ceilings.

Current plans already call for additional columns to be placed in the main hall to help support I-beams running across the roof.

Those columns would create minor sight blocks, but could be used as anchors for additional partition areas in the main hall. Currently the hall can only be divided into two unequal parts.

Current plans call for restrooms at the civic center to be updated and expanded including handicap access stalls and additional capacity for women.

Meeting Room C would be eliminated in favor of additional womens stalls near the front of the building.

All flooring and lighting is also scheduled for replacement.