Northport Leaders Debate Relocating City Hall Over Repair Costs

Elected and appointed officials in Northport are discussing the relocation of their City Hall, and are soliciting citizen feedback on the matter for the next two weeks.

At the end of their Monday night meeting, the Northport City Council gave the floor to City Administrator Tera Tubbs, who said their current home in the Civic Center at the corner of Highways 82 and 43 is in imminent need of millions of dollars in repairs.

"If you recall, a couple of months ago in a work session, we brought up the fact that we have close to $4 million dollars in repairs that need to be made to this building. A new roof, A/C, some structural issues with one of the walls, and various other things," Tubbs told the council. "We wanted to talk to the community, talk to y'all and see what your future vision for City Hall is."

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At the end of the council meeting, there was a two-hour public comment section during which citizens marked spots on maps where they might want to see City Hall relocated.

Architectural renderings showed what a newly built City Hall might look like, and questionnaires were available to weigh in on whether relocating is the right call at all.

Those maps and questionnaires are still up and available to review in the main lobby of the Northport Civic Center until the next council meeting on Monday, June 15th.

"I think it's just time for a conversation about possibly doing a new City Hall because of the costs of recurring maintenance and future maintenance issues that will probably be there," council president pro tempore Woodrow Washington told the Thread Tuesday. "So, why put $4 million into something when you can possibly look at just building a new City Hall. I don't know how long that building has been there, but I remember it as a child, and I'm 53."

Washington said the council will consider citizen feedback, but he believes that Northport has outgrown the Civic Center and should build something new.

He said they're also taking into consideration what better uses might exist for the property - ALDOT estimated that about 60,000 vehicles pass through that intersection daily. Still, the primary driver for Washington is moving into a bigger building and eliminating the rising cost of maintaining their current one.

"Me, personally, I would love to see a three- or four-story City Hall," Washington said. "And I'm always going to lean towards building in District 2. One thing about my district is that it covers a big area, and a lot of it is right when you come into Northport, coming from Tuscaloosa. You have options coming down Lurleen Wallace. You have options down by Lowe's. To me, a city hall should be visible, with good in-and-out access, and personally, I would love to see it to help spark redevelopment in District 2."

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