By JIM HARDIN
Herald-Banner Staff
FATE —
A new city hall is still in Fate’s future, but city council members agreed this week to delay taking some preliminary steps that would lead to construction.
After a brief discussion at its regular meeting Monday night, the city council took no action on an agenda item involving requests for qualifications for the city hall design-build construction project.
The project was delayed because of City Manager Vicki Mikel’s health and the search for a new city manager. Mikel is battling cancer, and the city council selected a professional recruiter Monday night to conduct a city manager search.
Also, funds for the project are not available at this time because all documents involving an agreement with the Williamsburg development have not been signed. Mayor Bill Broderick said funding for city hall construction is in that “package” of documents.
Broderick opened discussion by telling council members he believed the request for qualifications was a step that could be taken at this time.
“This has nothing to do with pushing dirt or making any decision, per se, regarding construction,” the mayor said. “It’s only a several-month process for a step that I think we could go ahead and take and be that much farther down the road when we do make the decision in regards to who we actually want to do business with.”
Broderick then asked Councilman K.C. Erwin to explain his “alternate suggestion.”
Erwin said he was concerned about the timing of the project.
“I’m not in any way opposed to building a fully-funded city hall,” Erwin said. “I’m not opposed to the design-build process, either one. I just merely have some concerns about the timing of moving forward with any portion of that project.”
He mentioned the situation with “the executive level leadership (city manager) in the city that’s going to have to spearhead that project.”
He also pointed to “the lack of finality in some of the developments that we have going on with Williamsburg and that funding being a significant source of what we will do.”
Erwin also expressed his concern for a new city manager who would be “stepping into several significant projects.”
He said there would be “lots of different things going.” Erwin questioned whether “it would be something they (a new city manager) would immediately be able to step in to and hit the ground running on and carry forward.”
Broderick said he had expected to “sign off” on the final documents in the Williamsburg transaction Monday night. That final action was delayed, however. The mayor said the city “will be looking at those (documents) in the next week or two.
“Since the funding for city hall is in that package (of documents) and yet we do not have a signed document, then for that reason alone, I would support not moving forward right now.”
