WORK SET TO START ON NEW COUNTY HALL ON FORMER CIE YARD

PART OF THE SITE IS EAR-MARKED FOR TOWN SWIMMING POOL, RAILWAY BRIDGE WILL BE REMOVED January 1998

MULTI-MILLION-POUND projects are about to transform the former Barrack Street freight depot site.

Work is set to commence on a new county hall for Louth county council, which will cost between £6 million and £6.5 million by the time it is completed in the middle of 1999.

Negotiations are underway with the Office of Public Works to build offices on the site to accommodate the decentralisation of a government department.

Also, part of the land is earmarked as the location of Dundalk’s long-awaited swimming pool.

And tied in with all of this is the removal of the St. Alphonsus Road railway bridge, no longer needed since the closure of the nearby freight depot.

The council buys the 4.2 acres site from Iarnród Éireann some time ago, to pave the way for the development.

Contracts are signed with John Paul Construction Ltd., Dublin, for the construction of the county hall.

The 40,000sq. ft. building will have accommodation for 115 staff, over three floors.

The plan is to have it completed in the centenary year of Louth county council, which held its first meeting in April, 1899.

The project will be financed through a £3 million loan, the rest funded by the local authority and through the sale of the motor taxation office at The Crescent, and the council’s present premises in Crowe Street.

Designed by the National Building Agency, the new hall will enable the council to have all of its services under one roof; the exceptions being the library and Civil Defence, who have their own facilities at Roden Place and St. Dominic’s Place respectively.

County manager John Quinlivan says there are projects valued at over £200 million being built, or in the pipeline for Co. Louth, and if they didn’t have satisfactory offices, the motivation and morale of staff would be seriously impacted.

The development also means improved facilities for council members, and better accommodation for them to do business; and Mr. Quinlivan points out Louth is way behind other local authorities in providing such facilities.

Should the decentralisation also go ahead, it is envisaged Barrack Street will be a ‘one stop shop’ for public services in Dundalk.

The county hall will be opposite the Redemptorist Church, while the swimming pool and government department would be located south of it.

One of the old shunting sheds will be demolished, and the one remaining, nearest the inner relief road, will be refurbished.

On the subject of the swimming pool, the county manager says what’s envisaged is an eight-lane 25 metres pool.

He intends to talk to Dundalk urban council about it shortly, and hopes a significant step forward will take place.

‘I will make every effort that I possibly can to provide the town with a swimming pool, and it will require the co-operation of many.’

Finally, a spin-off of all the work, will be the removal of St. Alphonsus Road bridge.

Clarks Ireland Sales Ltd. Back-row, from left, Brian Mulholland, Paddy Cheshire, Noel McCoy, Hugh Higgins, Sean McEneaney, Tommy Donnelly, Donal Cunningham, Jimmy McLoughlin, Denis Faulkner, Billy O’Connell, Brendan Mathews. Second-row, JJ Crawley, Mary Gernon, Rosena Curran, Nancy Halpin, Phil McComish, Mena Faulkner, May Geeney, Bertie Dullaghan, Michael Carroll. Third-row, Nancy Clarke, May Clarke, Kathleen Traynor, Bill McKeever, Jack Kehoe. Front-row, Cathal Boyd, Julia Callan, Maxi Keenan, Kevin O’Callaghan (personnel manager), Mary McElligott (Mary retired on this day), Christine Bond, Annie Lambe, Charlotte Donnelly.