Norfolk Daily News

Tuesday – December 18th, 2007

Downtown businessman and a mayoral candidate urged the Norfolk City Council to rethink its plan to buy a former church to remodel into space for the city offices.

They spoke at the end of Monday night’s council meeting during the public comment period. No action was taken by the council.

Last week the council put down $6,500 on an option to buy the vacant First Christian Church building at 1200 N. 13th St. for $650,000. Building inspections and a property appraisal will be done by March followed by a public hearing – if the council ultimately decides to proceed with the purchase.

City offices now located inside the aging city auditorium downtown have been described as inadequate to meet the needs of staff and the public. The council brought the issue into the open with the decision to take a look at the church building on north Highway 81.

At Monday’s meeting, the council heard from mayoral candidate Tom Schommer, Daily News publisher Jerry Huse, building owner Byron Ballantyne, Nebraska Life publisher Chris Amundson and Century Lumber manager Roger Brummels, who gave various suggestions on how to find new office space for the city.

None of them viewed moving the offices outside the downtown area as a good idea.

Mayor Gordon Adams said the public wouldn’t be shut out of the discussion and that a public hearing would be required if the city decides to move forward.

Schommer said buying the church building “lacks vision.” He suggested the idea of putting a variety of public entities under one roof, similar to what’s been done with the Lifelong Learning Center at Northeast Community College.

“It’s about vision, not just dollars and cents,” he said.

Huse said that while the council has a tremendous challenge in sorting out budget priorities, the city needs to build a new city hall downtown to enhance the heart of the city and serve it well into the future. It could be financed through a lease-purchase arrangement with a builder, he said.

Ballantyne, who owns four buildings along Fourth and Fifth streets, also said that downtown is the heart of the city and must remain viable and attractive.

Councilman Karl Reeder, asked where in the downtown area the city could build. Ballantyne said that’s what should be investigated, but that his properties would not work because of inadequate parking.

Amundson called for a citizens’ panel to be created to advise the council. “The message is the decision makers are headed down a path without a whole lot of public input,” he said. “We need to backpedal on this and let the community evaluate.”

He suggested razing a block of buildings downtown, building a city campus with green space, investigating how to finance it and seeing what other communities have done.

Brummels, who is also chairman of the downtown vehicle parking district, said the city has made a commitment to improve the downtown and to attract businesses. He said the issue should be open for public discussion to bring ideas together.

Reeder said the church building represents a good value and could adequately house the city offices. He questioned whether citizens would support building a “grandiose” city hall.

Councilman Ivan Van Dyke said citizens could call council members to let them know their feelings on the issue. Van Dyke said he doubted a committee of citizens should be formed to further explore the issue.