(Arnolds Park)– The Arnolds Park City Council met in special session Thursday to talk about possible funding options for a new complex that would house city offices, the Police Department, Library and Fire Department. Mayor Jim Hussong says from a financial standpoint, the council has determined building an all-new facility would be more feasible than remodeling the existing one which he says the city has outgrown…
“We basically are outgrowing the city hall space that we have now. We moved in there in 1997. It actually used to be a car dealership that was there that we kind of made work for our city hall. We have the library and we have the Police Department there, the city workers and then we also have the fire department there. We’re just outgrowing it and so we’ve been looking at different options, looking at moving it or staying at the existing space and trying to re-do what’s already there. And basically, you know, when you do a major change like that you have to upgrade everything up to current codes and by the time we would do that it actually would just be more expensive to do it that way than just to start over from scratch.”
Hussong says the new complex would be constructed on the existing city hall/fire station site and just to the east of that on some land the city acquired a couple of years ago, where the new fire station would be built…
“There would be four bays total that would be there. We would put the fire department in there and then also the police department on that side of it. And then on the main area, the library that we have at Arnolds Park is phenomenal. We have so many people and kids going through there. They have special programs. They are running out of space in there, too. So we’re going to look at making that a lot larger and then have meeting rooms within there so that people can come and meet in there, make everything at one level, just to have a great space for the library and everything else.”
Hussong adds that while they’re still working out final designs and a cost estimate, the project will have no impact on property taxes…
“What we’re looking at is using motel/hotel money and then also both of our TIF programs so it won’t be affected towards, you know, our residents but it will just be raised by other funds we have available to us.”
Hussong says the construction would be done in phases…
“First we’re going to start with the fire department and get that built, and it’s going to be on an empty lot we have just to the east of the existing city hall, and then we’ll move the staff over there except for the library. The library we have to figure out where we’ll move to for that side of it, but everybody will move in there and then we’ll do demolition on the existing building and then re-build that one and move back in from there.”
Dependent upon how the final design and bidding process goes, Hussong says construction could start as early as maybe a year from now.
