After over a year of waiting for Commerce’s city hall to open, the wait is about to be over for town residents as well as students.
“We actually started construction in Sept. 2005 so it’s been close to 18 months since we began the project,” said Bill Shipp, city manager for Commerce. “Prior to that, as far back as in 2001, the city was recognizing these needs and started searching for an architect and drawing up a facilities master plan.”
The new city buildings are being built due to lack of adequate space and the inability to repair of some of the space, which was most true of the old police station, commented Shipp.
According to Shipp, that facilities master plan became the basis for going out to the public for bond money and the bond that was passed in Sept. 2003 was what allowed the city hall and the police and fire station to be built.
The city buildings are being built by construction manager Harrison Walker Harper from Paris and were designed by Randall Scott Architects out of Dallas.
“I think an even more important reason is what kind of statement new buildings make to people who are coming to Commerce…whether it be new students, new student’s parents, businesses looking to relocate, or someone thinking about putting in a retail shop,” commented
Shipp. “I really believe that when a town invests in itself other people will follow suit so I think it’s about economic development and this supercedes the requirement for space.”
“The overall construction price is $2.12 million for city hall and $2.5 million for the police and fire station,” said Shipp. “We are lucky to have had a guaranteed maximum price so even though building costs went up we paid a flat rate.”
The city hall will house a courtroom as well as additional office space and the fire station will have a dormitory. There will also be a pull through garage that will house the fire trucks.
“We plan to demolish the old police station as soon as the police officers are relocated,” said Shipp. “As far as the fire station, we are looking at several possibilities including leasing it to other emergency services.”
The new city hall is planning to open March 12 with the police / fire stations tentatively scheduled for two months from then.