|
Eventually, Arlington will get a new Town Hall. It just seems like it is taking forever. The northeast Shelby municipality’s offices have sat at the corner of Douglass Street and Airline Road for lo these many decades. While it still looks fine from the exterior, the fact is town staff has outgrown the space. The Town Hall always looked kind of cramped before the turn of the century, but it represented what was then a small town. A few offices, a meeting room. A spot for the mayor to use if he came by. But that is not Arlington anymore. It has grown from the 2000 U.S. Census, when less than 3,000 lived there, to a town pushing a population north of 15,000. That number is only going to keep growing as suburban sprawl spreads that way. The potential of BlueOval City up the road in Haywood County will also lead to growth. Officials have looked for a new Town Hall site since 2016, Cathy Durant, the town administrator, said. But plans for a new Town Hall have hit a bit of a snag. Arlington planned to build a municipal complex, spreading north from the current location with a library, some extra buildings and an expanded municipal office space. Then the state offered officials 358 acres that was once part of the 444-acre campus for the state Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities off Milton Wilson Road. That offer came up about a year ago, and the site provided the town more flexibility. Last December, Mayor Mike Wissman told our reporter — Michael Waddell — that he expected things to move quickly after the start of 2024 once the documents were official. Things didn’t accelerate fast enough. There are still details to work out on the Milton Wilson Road site. Meanwhile, the current small Town Hall continues to get more and more cramped. So the town is looking at a “stopgap” measure, adding on to the existing building. Waddell reported on the change in direction that was presented during this week’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting. The new approach would double the size of Town Hall to more than 5,000 square feet. The intent is to provide more room until a decision can be made and a Town Hall built on the former state property. Wissman said the doubling of the current offices won’t go to waste. Even after a new Town Hall is built, Arlington can use the expanded location for other departments and employees. As for the site to the north of Town Hall on Airline Road, that is destined to become prime commercial real estate, and Arlington will hold on to it until it gets more return on selling that land. So, the little Town Hall eventually will morph into a bigger Town Hall, both at the current site and the future location. It is just going to take a bit more time. — Suburbs editor, Clay Bailey
We hope you enjoy reading the latest news from our suburban reporters. If you’re a Daily Memphian subscriber, we appreciate your support. If not, consider signing up for unlimited access to all of our local news coverage.
With delays stalling a new town hall in Arlington and the need for more space for government functions, officials are expanding the current city-administration building.
By Michael Waddell
..... |
