Norfolk Daily News

Tuesday – January 8, 2008

More citizens weighed in on what to do about finding new administrative office space for the City of Norfolk during a city council meeting Monday night.

Mike Nolan, city administrator, started with a presentation of deficiencies in the city auditorium, which also houses offices for city employees, Mayor Gordon Adams then opened the floor to comments from the public.

the council is considering the vacant First Christian Church building on North 13th Street. The city has a 90-day option to buy it for $650,000 if an evaluation – which is under way – shows it could be remodeled into suitable office space.

Another idea involves expansion of the city council chambers buuilding at 309 W. Madison Ave. downtown. It was purchased in the mid-1980’s and the building renovated for @200,000, which Nolan said was a bargain for the city.

He also briefly talked about the parking lots paid for by the Vehicle parking Districh as a possibility and that using any of them would be “an important capital dicision” for downtown business owners to make.

Some downtown businessmen have urged the city council to keep the city offices in the downtown area.

During his presentation, Nolan said that for plannning purposes, the city estimates it would cost $75 per square foot to retrofit a building into office space and twice as much to build new.

“We’re constantly dealing with trade-offs, how to balance the budget and deal with capital improvements,” he said.

Preliminary cost figurers for a 20-year bond issue to finance the lease/purchase of a building note that on a $1.5 million bond, for example, the additional property taxes would be $13.62 per year on a $100,000 house.

Nolan encouraged more suggestions from the public, too.

“anyone who wants to give us a site option…we’ll look at all of those,” Nolan said.

R.J. Baker, director of the Elkhorn Valley Economic Development Council, said his group would be willing to consider joing offices with city, chamber of commerce, school districh and other groups – all in one building.

Tom Schommer, a candidate for mayor, said he had letters from the Northeast Economic Development District and Norfolk Area Recruiters supporting the concept of shared office facilities for agencies serving the Norfolk area.

Dan Mauk, president of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, urged the city to “do it right and not rush it.” The logical step would be to work offices into the river wald development, which would encourage private investment, he said.

Carol Lingenfelter suggested the city take a look at the Kensington Building downtown.

Mayor Adams entered into the record a letter from Norfolk builder Lowell Beckenhauer Jr., whose grandfather built the city auditorium in 1939.

If the city proceeds with buying the church building, “you will spend, on average, 80-85 percent of new costs to try and transform a chruch into a city hall, and in the process you will have removed the function of city hall from the downtown,” Beckenhauer wrote.

Adams also outlined his position in a letter, saying that finding a new office space has been a priority since his election in 2000, but the city also faces the prospect of expensive major capital projects in the near futurer. That’s why the city is looking for an affordable option for new city offices, he said.

The capital projects he listed are the North Victory Road drainage improvements, Nucor Road erlocation, water and sewer extensions south of the Elkhorn River, worn out swimming pools and an outdated football field.

“The facility that became available on North 13th Street has been toured by all of the city elected officials, and is our impression that this would be able to be developed into very efficient office space that will serve the needs of city administration for many years,” he wrote.

Public meeting will be scheduled within the next 30 days to receive additional input from citizens, he said.