City moves to put offices in insurance building

By Virginia Ross

Council would hold its meetings at another site.

EAST PALESTINE — Council is proceeding with its plans to move the city’s administration offices out of the Captain Taggart Building.

Earlier this week, council approved the first reading of a measure authorizing Gary Clark, city manager, to enter into an agreement that would allow the city to lease the McCamon Insurance building on North Market Street. The agreement provides the city with an option to buy the building.

Officials indicated they are considering adopting the legislation at council’s next regular meeting on Dec. 8. Clark said he is working out the details of the proposed agreement and intends for the specifications of the proposed legislation to be finished by then.

Citing increasing utility and maintenance costs, officials said they have been looking to move city operations out of the former Captain Taggart Elementary School building at 82 Garfield Ave. for the past few years. They have said the building is too big for the city’s needs. Attempts to sell the structure have not panned out, however.

Clark said it costs about $60,000 a year to heat the 35,000-square-foot former elementary school building, which has served as city hall the past 10 years, and cover the boiler and roof maintenance agreements.

Four full-time and three part-time city employees work in the building, which also serves as a meeting place for council. The building also houses offices for Social Concern and Meals on Wheels agencies. The city takes in about $9,000 a year from tenants, Clark said.

Clark said the one-story McCamon building has significantly less space, which would be just enough to house the same city offices located in the facility. Because there is not adequate space to serve as a meeting room, council likely would conduct its meetings in the city park community room or another location, he noted.

Meanwhile, council hired Kiko Associates to auction the building, with Kiko’s fee being a 7 percent commission. The agreement also authorizes Kiko to auction city property in Leslie Run Estates and the old light plant property.

Council changed the Captain Taggart building site from residential to commercial zoning in an effort to attract prospective bidders at the auction.

Clark has said the city’s original plan was to sell the building and then relocate its offices, but officials realized the need to get out from under the costs of keeping the building open through another winter.

Officials previously discussed building two additions at the Clark Street Fire Station. One space would be used to store the city’s firetrucks, bringing them all under one roof, and the other would be structured for city offices.

In recent months, they also discussed looking at other city-owned properties as possible sites, or buying additional land with a building or a plot where a new city hall could be built.