Move city hall to Court Square

Up until a couple months ago, I never gave much thought about McMinnville city government leaving the Blue Building.

City hall has been there ever since I can remember, and it seems to be a fairly convenient spot, so I didn’t expend a great deal of energy thinking about new locations. But apparently city officials have.

That’s because the Blue Building, unbeknownst to the Warren County masses, has slowly slipped into an acute state of dilapidation. Only the first floor is in usable shape with the rest of the building gradually falling apart as you read. I never realized it had gotten so bad.

It’s because of this city leaders have considered leveling the Blue Building and starting over. However, there are problems with this plan, the utmost being there will be absolute outrage if city officials go through with it. And if Rachel Killebrew has anything to do with it, she’ll throw herself in front of any bulldozer that makes its way toward the Blue Building.

It’s been estimated that renovating the 62,000-square foot Blue Building will cost some $6 million. And yes that does sound a bit much.

That sort of pricetag led city officials to consider other options, like tearing it down and starting over. This has been estimated as even more expensive, somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 million, which is a neighborhood I’m sure most city taxpayers don’t want to visit.

Faced with those two options, McMinnville officials revealed about two weeks ago they’re considering saying good-bye to the Blue Building and finding a new home for city hall. You can’t fight city hall, but nobody ever said you couldn’t move it.

The Regions Bank building on Court Square, which has been for sale for a year, has been mentioned as one possible spot. I should stress I really like this idea. It would put McMinnville City Hall smack dab in the middle of downtown McMinnville, and that’s a positive step.

It would increase the level of activity around Court Square which would, it stands to reason, help downtown businesses. City hall employees might be more inclined to shop Main Street stores and walk to Main Street restaurants. The same could be said of people coming to city hall to pay their water bill or conduct city business.

While this may seem like a dream-come-true answer, nothing is ever so easy. Leaving the Blue Building would create some problems.

First and foremost is what to do with McMinnville Police Department. Moving the police department to the old Powermatic building has been mentioned, but this seems like a giant step backwards. I’ve also heard talk about the old A.O. Smith building, which would make the police department close to the jail. I suppose this might work from a practicality standpoint, but I’m not so sure about the image of putting police headquarters inside an old factory.

There’s also the issue of responsibility, which no one can do anything about at this point. But it’s sufficient to say elected officials did not serve the city well by allowing the Blue Building to deteriorate to its current condition. It’s easier to perform routine maintenance than to try and fix a problem when it’s at crisis level.

At this point, perhaps it’s best for a non-profit organization to adopt the Blue Building as its cause and jump start revitalization and fundraising efforts if the city does in fact abandon ship. If that happens, I like the Regions Bank building as the new city hall. However, a new police department location appears more troublesome.

James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].