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The new city hall was once again up for discussion during the LaFayette council meeting on Monday. The city’s code enforcement officer, Kim Langley, and the architect of the project, Richard Meinert, both updated the council on the progress of the city hall renovation.

The city bought the old bank building at 54 LaFayette Street, across from Renfroe’s Market after planning to locate the city hall in the McClendon Building on the square. The city bought the McClendon building but later realized the renovations would be too expensive and sold the building and bought the bank building. 

Meinert had drawn up more extensive plans when the bank was first bought and the city put the plans out for bid to construction companies. The council declined both of the received construction bids in March this year, due to the expense of the proposed renovation. Those original bids were both around $450,000.

They then asked the architect to redraw plans, including only the required renovations, like ADA compliance and other minor changes, while cutting the more costly items.

“We met, kind of walked through the building and talked about the revised scope of work,” said Meinert. “It kind of boils down to just the bare requirements to get ADA and to get ready for customer service.”

Councilmember Terry Mangram responded, “We’ve been over this, you know, a couple of times. So I think at this time, I put in a formal motion that we approve this plan.”

Meinert said he would like to meet with the entire council at the building before finalizing the plans.

“[I’ll] have everything back, all the revised drawings, all the revised documents, sometime in December,” Meinert said.

He added that the city should be able to put out a new call for bids at the beginning of 2025, with construction beginning in February or March.

The council unanimously approved the architect’s new plans.