Adairville mayor Donna Blake has big plans for the south Logan County city.
She and the city council has had an architectural firm draw up plans for a new complex that would combine the city’s fire house and city hall into one new multi-purpose building.
“We’ve had to re-purpose our old fire department building to get our two firetrucks in and it hard to still get them in,” Blake said.
The city council voted to expand the building once more in order to fit a new tanker truck in, but Blake has decided to hold off on that project until she can see if a brand new building is possible.
“We want to start applying for grants as soon as possible,” Blake said. “Because that’s about the only way we’re going to get this done.”
Blake said she would love to see Adairville get a city complex similar to the one in Greenbriar, Tenn.
“It’s just impressive,” Blake said. “It says ‘we care for our people.’ Every time I drive by there, it just spoke to me.”
So the city had the plans drawn up for the new building.
“We did some things like incorporating the city council chambers as training space for the firemen,” Blake said. “And that space could also be rented out because the way it’s built in the back of the building you can lock everything else down.”
The new building would have a drive-through window for paying water bills and most importantly, would be handicap accessible.
“We want to be able to serve all our people in Adairville,” Blake said. “And the city hall we have right now can’t really do that.”
The project is still in the very beginning stages and may not happen for years yet.
It could cost an estimated $750,000, so finding funding is the next step now that plans have been drawn up.
“We have already started searching for money that is available,” Blake said. “We already have one CDBG (Community Block Development Grant) and that may be where we have to go. But can’t have two at one time.”
The city is currently in the process of applying for a CDBG in order to upgrade and repair the town’s water and sew systems.
“We had to prioritize and going with the infrastructure is a no-brainer,” Blake said. “And we have to get this grant closed out before we can apply for another CDBG.”
Finding a spot to build on is also a necessity.
Blake has been trying to get Houchens Industries to sell back the piece of land it bought beside the current city hall for the purpose of building a grocery store, but later abandoned the idea.
“But they have not responded to an offer yet,” Blake said.
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