QuoteBy The Times-Union
Renovation work is progressing on the old Haverty's building, and it will be ready as a City Hall Annex next spring.
Good. City offices are scattered throughout the downtown area, which is inconvenient for those who do business with them.
Mayors have dreamed for many years of ending that by clustering city offices in the Hemming Plaza area.
To that end, City Hall was moved to the St. James Building. Then the Ed Ball Building, located about a block away, was remodeled. It now houses Public Works and other bureaucracies.
After Haverty's - located across the street from City Hall - is occupied, the final piece of the puzzle will be the courthouse.
The bad news is that, less than a year before it is to be ready, the city hasn't decided what to put there.
A mayoral spokeswoman says it probably will have the environmental and compliance department and also procurement.
But that still isn't a certainty. Nor is it known what other staffs will move into the cavernous 60,000-square-foot building.
Those decisions should have been made by now.
Suggestions: Put the tax collector, property appraiser and supervisor of elections in the Haverty building.
The public deals with them. Don't keep them several blocks away.
One other issue:
Three years ago, the Times-Union reported that the city planned to spend $8 million renovating the building.
Later, the price tag went up to $10 million.
And last week, the City Council was asked to raise it again - this time to $12 million.
More money was needed, the legislation stated, "due to unanticipated additional renovation costs."
That's a 50 percent increase in three years, which is a little reminiscent of the courthouse project - although on a smaller scale.
Meanwhile, city leaders say they don't have $16,000 to join the National Association of Counties, something that would qualify all residents for a 20 percent discount on their prescription medications at participating pharmacies.
The city of Jacksonville has odd priorities.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/080108/opi_312096789.shtml
The city government is an incompentent joke
If only they would have made leasable retail on the ground floor, they may have been able to get back some of that money. Another nightly dead zone.
I find it a little strange that the city took on such a large project without having a definitive plan for occupancy.
i dont.
Quote from: Lunican on August 01, 2008, 02:00:47 PM
I find it a little strange that the city took on such a large project without having a definitive plan for occupancy.