Northport's Plans for New City Hall Hit Snag on Strange Vote

Northport's plan to build a new City Hall seems to have stalled Monday when the city council failed to approve an almost $500,000 engineering contract for the project moments after OK'ing a similar measure to design it.

Officials across the river are exploring the idea of relocating municipal operations out of the existing Northport Civic Center at the corner of Highways 82 and 43 to something new they build closer to their downtown district. They say the current City Hall needs close to $4 million in repairs, including a new roof, air conditioning work and structural repairs to one wall.

At its last meeting, the city council voted to buy land near Bridge Avenue, 10th Street and Lurleen Wallace Boulevard by the Black Warrior River for the new City Hall. The property is currently owned by Tanyard Corners, LLC and sits beside the Courtyard Marriott hotel off Lurleen just as you come into Northport from downtown Tuscaloosa.

Mayor Dale Phillips, asked before the meeting about moving out of the current building, said the city has run out of alternatives.

"It's time. It's time. This building is old. It needs repairs that will be costly. We're out of space even if we repair this building," Phillips said. "It's just time, and it's a hard decision. Some people don't understand it. But we have to keep in mind that in some aspects of what we do, we're building for the future. This will be realized down the road, and hopefully it will help keep the city a step ahead."

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This Monday, the council approved a $711,218 architectural contract with Ward Scott Morris Architecture to design the new City Hall in a 3-1 vote, with Councilman Turnley Smith of District 1 casting the lone no vote and Woodrow Washington abstaining due to familial property ownership near the site.

But when the engineering services contract with Duncan Coker Associates came up minutes later, Washington abstained, and this time, Councilman Danny Higdon of District 5 also abstained because his brother works for the engineering firm. Smith voted no again.

That left two votes in favor, from Council President Jamie Dykes, who made the motion, and Councilwoman Jaime Conger, who seconded it. But after first believing the motion passed, city staff noted that resolutions require three yeses to pass on the five-member council no matter the circumstances. That meant in this strange case where a majority of the voting members were in favor of the resolution, the contract failed.

City administrator Tera Tubbs said this will slow down the process, because part of the contract with Duncan Coker Associates included third-party site testing, which will be necessary for due diligence required before they close on the downtown land where the City Hall is meant to go.

Speaking to the Thread after the meeting, Smith said his objection is to where the building would go, not to the project itself.

"I'm not a fan of the location. We didn't vote on the location as a council, and I'm just not a big fan of the location," Smith said. "We could have stayed here with the same effect of being there. I think there are other locations that we should have looked at that would have done the city better."

Smith and the rest of the city council did unanimously vote 4-0 (Washington abstained) to purchase the land at their September 1st meeting, though.

Smith said the base of municipal operations should not be treated like a commercial storefront.

"City Hall should not be like a retail establishment where you want all that traffic. That's not what a city hall is. City Hall is a destination," he said. "And so we should have treated it as such. We didn't do that."

The Civic Center property is also home to the attached Fire Station No. 1, which is likely to be relocated as well, pushed further west.

Tubbs said the fire station moving is a separate need driven by the city's ISO rating, which she said indicates the station should move west of its current location. The city already owns the site under consideration, behind its public works building.

On measures for that part of the project, the council passed a $353,347 engineering contract with Duncan Coker Associates for work on a new Fire Station No. 1, with Higdon again abstaining.

They also OK'd a $306,790 architectural contract with Blue Sky Latitudes LLC for the fire station.

Tubbs told the Thread Wednesday that the council will have to vote on at least allowing TTL to perform the site testing for this initiative to proceed, and said she is aiming to have it on the agenda of their next meeting.

For more exclusive coverage of Northport news in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.