Special Meeting for Town Hall Location

I have called a special meeting of Town Council to choose a location for the new Town Hall.   The meeting will be tomorrow, Wednesday, January 13 at 5:00.

Both locations are near the current Town Hall at the corner of Dills Bluff and Camp.

One alternative is 1.5 acres of the JIPSD Dills Bluff property.   The JIPSD had a regular meeting last night (Monday, January 11.)   A proposal regarding the Dills Bluff property was on the agenda.  

The JIPSD had a rough plan developed that showed the new Town Hall on a portion of the property and  a JIPSD Administrative building next door.   There was a proposed memorandum of agreement between the Town and the JIPSD that included the sale of 1.5 acres to the Town to locate Town Hall and also the development of a joint campus.

However, there was no quorum for the regular JIPSD meeting, so the meeting was cancelled.

Commissioners Brown-Crouch, McMillan, and Wilder were in attendance.

Commissioners Waring, Kernodle, Hollingsworth, and Platt were absent.

I had hoped that the Commissioners would vote to authorize a contract with the Town before our special meeting that would make the JIPSD site competitive with the alternative site in terms of price, certainty, and timeliness.   The Town Administrator had disclosed to the JIPSD on Friday that the Town Attorney would advise against adopting the proposed memorandum of agreement that had been sent to us late Thursday afternoon.   I wrote the Commissioners on Saturday with an explanation of what I thought it would take for the JIPSD site to be competitive with the alternative.

Unfortunately, the JIPSD Commission failed to hold its regularly scheduled meeting.

I will present the JIPSD location to Council, but at this point it really amounts to nothing more than a continuation of uncertain negotiations.  

The alternative site involves the combination of several parcels.    Depending on future negotiations, we will have a site between 1.5 and 2 acres.   Because of these continuing negotiations, it is not wise to disclose the exact location or an estimate of total cost.

We have reached a deadline on acquiring one of the parcels.   That is why I am asking Council for a decision on Wednesday.