City Council To Discuss Relocation
El Paso City Council is scheduled to hear a presentation on various places to move city hall employees and services Tuesday morning.
The 46-page presentation outlines why the city chose to use the land occupied by City Hall for the proposed Triple-A baseball park, why Cohen Stadium was not an option to house the baseball team, possible building sites where the new City Hall could set up, and the various costs associated with making those buildings meet the city’s needs.
One change slipped into the last few pages of the presentation was a proposal to shift City Council meetings to the Downtown branch of the El Paso Public Library.
There is no cost and availability is not an issue since the city owns the property. However, the presentation writers recognize there is no “on-site” parking, but state, “there are a number of off-site parking spaces available in the area.”
Another proposal is to move the Information Technology department to the Luther Building, located at 218 N. Campbell Street. Currently, IT employees work at several different sites across the city. The presentation states this is an ideal location because the Luther Building is vacant and large enough to accommodate IT staff with room to grow.
City Manager Joyce Wilson held a news conference along with several others who are helping the city find a new City Hall site.
“It also buys time to really figure out where the city wants to go in the future,” said TVO North America’s Russ Vandenburg. “Do they want to build their own separate building, do they like where they’re moving right now, but it gives them that time to think about it.”
City Council is set to review the presentation today. Stay with ABC-7 and kvia.com for updates.
