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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend October 24, 2005 City Planners Angela Barry, front, and Laura LeCornu work in cramped quarters at Phoenix City Hall. City departments are looking for a new home after the site was sold to Jackson County for a new library. Phoenix sees growing pains By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune PHOENIX — As Mayor Vicki Bear drives through city center, she sees blackberry bushes, vacant buildings and the future of Phoenix. A heap of dirt alongside Reese’s Dive Shop marks the site of a new City Hall. Bicentennial Park next door will one day trade weeds, trash and blackberries for benches and pathways along Bear Creek. A few blocks away, the Phoenix Fire Department is poised to receive new modular housing in place of a run-down house from the 1940s plagued by insufficient climate control and plumbing, asbestos and duct-taped carpet. The existing city library next to the fire station will soon provide temporary offices for city departments. A lot behind the fire station will host a modular for more city offices, and parking will be created on a 60-by-120-foot parcel purchased recently for $30,000 to access the temporary city compound off Third Street. Advertisement With so many changes afoot, the city faces a barrage of decisions in coming months — and a juggling act between necessary changes and limited funding. "Any small city with a large amount of growth and limited resources, it’s always a challenge, but it’s how you look at it and deal with it that projects the outcome," said Bear. "It’s all very challenging but it’s a positive step in the right direction." Having rendered itself homeless after selling City Hall to the county for a new library site, the city has just six months to find new quarters for all departments except fire. Fire must take possession of its new sleeping quarters by Dec. 31 or face steep storage costs. In April, the county will demolish City Hall to make way for the new library, which likely will be the last in the county to be replaced as part of a $39 million bond approved by voters in 2000. "The decision for all this was made when we decided to sell City Hall for a new library," said Council Vice President Carlos DeBritto. "There was no turning back after that. But sometimes you have to take a little risk — calculated risk — or else nothing gets done." City Hall, DeBritto pointed out, needed replacing. The existing council chambers, which doubles for the municipal court, has termites, inadequate climate control, an ailing metal roof and no windows. Tucked into opposite corners of the same building are police, administration and planning and building departments combined. Once the new library is built, City Council members temporarily will meet in the community room until a new City Hall is finished. In the meantime, though, they’ll meet at area schools. "What we’re embarking on is what we used to call a Chinese fire drill," said Councilman Lee Carrau at a recent meeting. Council members Otto Caster and Terry Helfrich, also a member of the committee working to find a temporary home for city offices, worried about limited financial resources for the project. "Looks like you’re spending money way down the road that you don’t know you’re going to have," Caster said. Helfrich also worried about the city taking on too much — all the city needed was the old library and a building for additional space, he said — and that a precedent would be set by using modular, prefabricated buildings in the urban renewal district. Denis Murray said the city "doesn’t have a lot of choices" because of high rent prices and a lack of money to proceed with building the new City Hall. Construction on a site along Highway 99 that was purchased this year for $350,000 could take five to seven years or longer, according to city officials. Estimates gathered in recent years showing that a 12,000-square-foot City Hall would cost just under $2 million are likely now closer to $3 million, officials said. Fire Chief Matt Lichtenstein said he appreciates the new sleeping quarters for his firefighters, purchased for $50,000. "It’s been a long-term project," said Lichtenstein, "and I think we’re fortunate to have a council with the vision to move forward in providing adequate facilities for our firefighters and other departments." The next step, Bear said, would be to hire a consultant who would manage the many aspects of the project. Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected]. Phoenix City Hall funding sources: $262,000 from the sale of the existing City Hall to Jackson County for a new city library; the sale included the existing library structure next to the fire department. Possible inner-department loan of about $70,000 from Public Works for contributing toward purchase of a modular unit for use as city office space. Uncalculated funds from system development charges from development of a Home Depot site along North Phoenix Road and surrounding parcels. $36,000 in 2006-2007 from an urban- renewal district approved in August. All told, the district will bring in some $14 million in improvements over several decades. $100,000 already set aside for construction. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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