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City Manager Wants To Renovate City Hall

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By LAURA KINSLER

lkinsler@tampatrib.com

Published: February 7, 2009

DADE CITY - City Manager Billy Poe has a vision in his head for downtown's Meridian Avenue.

It doesn't include the rust-stained, cracked and crumbling city hall.

"It's obvious it's not the nicest building in town," Poe said. "I think it's important for city hall to at least look respectable. Ideally, I'd like to see it completely renovated. It's not a good representation of Dade City."

The Dade City Commission has been trying to solve the city hall problem for years but money problems always got in the way.

Commissioners set their hopes on leaving the nearly 90-year-old building, and the city had an option to buy the former Wachovia Bank building at 14033 Eighth St. Those plans fell apart in 2006 because the city couldn't come up with the $3 million it would take to buy and convert it to city offices.

Last year, businessman Wilton Simpson floated a plan to buy City Hall. He wanted to gut the 3½ story building, do a complete renovation, and then lease it back to the city. Poe nixed the idea, saying the city could not afford to pay rent for a building it already owns.
Poe has come up with an alternative. He wants to use community redevelopment dollars to renovate city hall. The city has built up about $1 million in its redevelopment account, and that money has to be spent within the downtown district.

Plans already are under way with Tampa Electric to install decorative streetlights throughout the downtown district. That project will eat up a good portion of the revenue.
Poe wants the city commission, which also serves as Community Redevelopment Agency, to allocate between $250,000 and $300,000 for city hall. "Basically, we need to give city hall a facelift," he said. "I think it's important for city hall to look good."

He also would like to renovate the interior of the building floor by floor. He would start with the third floor, which c serves as storage for old city records, some dating back to 1938. The interior work would have to come later, however.

The first phase of the renovation would concentrate on the exterior. Poe wants to replace the cracked stucco and leaky windows, repair the roof, paint the building and demolish the old city jail addition.

"We may even remove the stone to give it a cleaner look," Poe said. "It's not original. I think it was added in the 1970s. I just feel like if we could get this shell cleaned up, it would really go far to change our image."

Before commissioners can consider the plan, it first needs to win the endorsement from the city's Redevelopment Advisory Committee. When the issue came up in January, some committee members were reluctant to sign off on the project.

Committee member Nancy Johnson said spending redevelopment money on city hall defeats the purpose of the redevelopment act. "The purpose of the CRA is to raise the taxable value, and city hall is not taxable," she said.

Mike Agnello worried that using redevelopment money for city hall "would be taking money away from property owners who pay into it."

Besides, the committee has its own list of projects to be funded by with the money.

"I understand where they're coming from," Poe said. "My thought is, yes, we are tax-exempt, but if we beautify city hall, it will add to the values of the adjoining properties."

City Attorney Karla Owens is rewriting city code to allow for the expenditure. The committee will take the issue up again at its Feb. 17 meeting.

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 779-4617.

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