PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — During Wednesday's meeting, city council members directed staff to determine the cost of basic repairs needed to reopen the historic city hall building, rather than pursuing the comprehensive renovation previously approved by prior council members.
The historic structure, built in 1926, had already fallen into disrepair before Hurricane Ian forced its closure. Since then, city leaders have debated how to address the building's issues.
Watch Fox 4's Alex Orenczuk report an update on Punta Gorda's city hall repairs:
Current council members believe focusing on essential repairs - including ADA compliance improvements, mold remediation, and roof repairs - would be sufficient to make the building operational again.
"What we have directed staff to do, if figure out what its going to cost to fix it, provide for maintenance going forward, and then also protection to prevent it from getting damaged in the future from flooding or hurricanes," said Greg Julian, Vice-Mayor.
Julian said with the money saved by scaling back the repairs could be used for other projects in the city.
"We'll be able to reallocate the vast amount of money they had accumulated and reallocate it to our infrastructure projects, the historic district drainage, sidewalks, lighting, city wide ADA projects and things like that," said Julian.
City staff indicated they would provide repair cost estimates to the council as soon as possible.
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