Board Decides to Move Ahead on Wentzville's New City Hall

At last week's board work session, City Administrator Michael McDowell asked if the board was ready to move ahead on a new city hall.

"The city budgeted $50,000 for design this year," McDowell reminded the board. He said that he had looked at a previous design, which he called "a Taj Mahal," but that coming up with a workable design would not be possible until a site was chosen.

McDowell said that two possible sites had been identified: downtown, where the city is leasing the former Commerce Bank location, and on Wentzville Parkway at the Law Enforcement Center.

"We're almost halfway through the year," McDowell said, "and if we're going to use this appropriation this year, we need to get an architectural team working on it."

McDowell offered to get estimates for land acquisition to bring back to the board on June 26. 

Alderman Sonya Shryock said that she knew of some additional sites that she would like to have considered, and McDowell asked anyone with alternatives to bring them forward so that staff could research them as well.

Some of the sites were already city owned, McDowell said. Others already had appraisals. McDowell said that they would look at county records and recent sales to get the best guess on the additional parcels. 

Once the site is selected, McDowell said, an architectural firm can have a design ready in 90 to 120 days.