The old problem of what to do with the Blue Building was up for a new discussion last week by city officials.
Meeting to discuss the issue were city Building and Grounds Committee members Steve Harvey, chairman, Ryle Chastain and Ben Newman.
“I don’t want anybody to think I’m in a big hurry to do anything drastic with the Blue Building or make any decisions right now,” said Harvey. “It just seems to me, I guess because I’m the chairman of this committee, that it’s the elephant in the room. I think people are ready for us to start talking about it and get some ideas together.”
Presented at the meeting by Harvey was a report submitted by AEI Architects, Engineers and Planners. The information was generated to offer an opinion on three options under consideration by officials.
“It gives three options on what can be done with the Blue Building,” Harvey said. “I wanted this discussion to be mostly about the Blue Building and not the police department but the more information I dug up the more it was about the police department. If we wander that way, I’m sorry. It kind of all goes together.”
Options
1 Renovate the existing building for the police department.
2 Demolish the Blue Building and construct a police department in its place.
3 Leave the Blue Building alone and construct a police department behind it.
“I marked what I thought were advantages and disadvantages of each of those options,” said Harvey. “The move I’ve looked at things and talked to people recently, there is a fourth option, which is staying where we are for a little while.”
The city currently leases space in Red Road Business Park. The lease expires in August 2016. Rent is $3,500 a month.
 “I sounds like they have a pretty good tenant that’s supposed to be coming in there,” said Harvey. “They tell me that within a year there is a good chance they will be putting a roof on a good portion of the building and they will probably put a new roof over the police department as well.”
Harvey says the owners of the building are interested in the police department remaining as tenants.
“The owners also said they would be very interested in the police department staying there for a while,” he said. “I guess you never know until you negotiate, but the owners made it aware they would be willing to sign another lease agreement now at this rate or more, but not much more.”
The information was presented for discussion only and future deliberation on the fate of the Blue Building.