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Zephyrhills moves forward with plan to build new City Hall

 
City Manager Steve Spina said both plans would cost the same.
City Manager Steve Spina said both plans would cost the same.
Published Sept. 28, 2016

ZEPHYRHILLS — The City Council has scrapped the idea of buying an old SunTrust Bank building and converting it into a new City Hall, opting instead to build a facility.

During a meeting Monday night, the council voted unanimously to stay the course with its original plan to build a new City Hall on the site of the current one at 5335 8th St., a vote that followed weeks of debate after the SunTrust option arose.

The council had been kicking around the idea of buying the 44–year-old SunTrust building at 5435 Gall Blvd. as a possible cost-saving measure. The council also weighed arguments that the Gall location would provide greater visibility on one of the city's busiest thoroughfares and make use of a vacant building.

But the council decided to stick with its original plan after City Manager Steve Spina said an analysis found that buying the bank building and renovating it would cost the same as building a new one.

Council members said they had received a flood of phone calls from people lobbying on both sides of the issue. They said the debate had also rekindled the bad memory of cost overruns two years ago when the city built a new library.

Council member Charlie Proctor said he favored a new City Hall because the cost likely would be the same as the bank building, and he was confident the city had learned its lesson with the cost overruns at the library.

"I believe we've all done our due diligence," he said of investigating the SunTrust option.

Council member Alan Knight agreed that the possibility of saving a couple million dollars with the bank building purchase needed to be examined. But the savings turned out to not be there, he said.

Council president Kenneth Compton called looking into the SunTrust building a "valid issue," as did council members Ken Burgess and Lance Smith. But Smith said in the end he opted for a plan he believes will bring residents a state-of-the-art building that will provide services for many years.

The discussion then turned to the projected $6 million budget to build the new City Hall. The council hired the firm of A.D. Morgan as construction manager, which will join architect Harvard Jolly. It is the same pair of companies that built the library and the council said it would take a dim view of cost overruns.

"I don't want to go through that again," Proctor said.

Spina assured the council that the process of planning the new City Hall would be meticulous and that the council would have input every step of the way, which could lead to cost savings.

"It depends on what we tell them we want," Spina said.

Knight, however, said he didn't want cost-cutting efforts to go so deep that corners are cut.

"I want them to be very accountable," he said of the contractors.