Safer city hall means renovation likely plan
By Bruce Wallace
With a new faŤade on the outside, Ashland Mayor Mike Asmus thinks it is now time to consider what to do about the interior of Ashland City Hall.
The mayor was to appoint a committee at Tuesday evening's Board of Aldermen meeting to look into the possibilities of renovating City Hall or other potential locations for city offices.
"The committee will have a broad charge to look at the various possibilities," said Asmus on Monday. "Leading the way would be to work with what we have."
Considering the costs of building - even if on property owned by the city - or the possibility of floating a bond issue in difficult economic times, it seems likely that the city will choose to renovate their existing space. Still, Asmus said he hopes the committee looks at every possibility.
The committee will be chaired by Alderman John Sutherland and include Alderman Mike Jackson, Police Chief Scott Robbins, City Clerk Darla Sapp, City Administrator Chris Heard and Ashland resident Shannon Webster.
"With John's background in construction, we will have lots of experience and expertise guiding us," Asmus said. "This will be more than re-decorating the offices, we need to work through some important safety issues and re-configure some odd spaces."
Currently if police want to detain someone charged with an offense, they can chain the detainee to a bolt, secured in the floor of an office within city hall. In order to move the detainee from the offices to a waiting sheriff's department car for transport, the detainee is usually escorted through city hall offices.
This is not normally a problem, however a situation earlier this spring included a handcuffed detainee becoming beligerant as he was escorted through the offices and ended with the offender being dragged out the door by multiple law enforcement officers.
"That situation has lit the fire under my interest in making changes," Asmus said. "It is potentially dangerous and something we can change."
The mayor said the current offices within city hall tend to be odd-sized and often rectangular with rhyme or reason.
"We are up to date with computers, servers and technology," Asmus said, "we just need to take a look at how we can use our space more wisely, if that is where the committee thinks we need to go. Certainly we need a safer situation."
The mayor said the committee does not have a budget prepared for the committee, but said a renovation could mean employees moving to temporary quarters.