Council City Hall Moves Downtown
Council just underwent a City Hall ‘Makeover.’
City Hall has moved to 100 Michigan Avenue as of June 29. This move has been in the works and contemplated for at least a year, according to City Clerk Ashely Scott.
When the public enters their City Hall they are greeted by the reception desk adorned with a backlit display of the city’s logo, a pleasing mountain and lake scene on the back wall and, perhaps most importantly, a bowl of assorted candy.
The City Council room is now much larger with half a dozen large windows to let light in and more space for members of the public to sit. The mayor also now has a dedicated office looking down Illinois Avenue. The new space totals about 2600 square feet with the City Council room accounting for about 700 of that total.
According to Historian Dale Fisk, Council’s city hall was housed in a small building that was situated southeast of the museum. In 1952, city hall moved to the present day museum building. In 1995 when the Boise Cascade sawmill closed, they donated the building at 501 Galena to the city. The city occupied that space until just last week when the office moved into the new building.
The move to 100 Michigan began when the city moved to sell off the former industrial park building and lots. 104 Council Avenue and an empty lot in the former Industrial Park, were traded to Brian Goodwin in exchange for the new City Hall Building and the lot directly to the south of it, now being use as a gravel parking lot. Brian Goodwin owns Council Guns which is now located at 104 Council Avenue.
The work at the new City Hall building was completed by Weiser River Customs and Golden Exteriors at a cost of just over $139,000. According to Scott, neither the real estate trade or the renovations used taxpayer money. The renovation money came from the sale of the industrial park buildings and the real estate was acquired at no cost with the trade mentioned above.
The regular city council meeting on July 15 will be preceded by an open house and free hot dogs from 4-6:00 p.m. Come check out the new space and then sit in on the public meeting which follows at 6:30.
