Center update plans halted

City says its goal remains to have offices in one location. Improvements would have cost $140,000.

HUBER HEIGHTS — The city of Huber Heights has put on hold plans to make improvements to its Government Center, which would have cost as much as $140,000 and included expanding the conference room.

The administration committee recently decided to delay the project indefinitely, although city officials said the goal in the future is to have all of its departments in one centralized location.

The city’s tax and water departments are located at the Huber Centre Shopping Center, and those leases expire at the end of 2013. The cityowned municipal courts building leased by Montgomery County would be an ideal option, but that contract isn’t up until 2018.

“As much as it is about finding more room and consolidating things, the advantage ultimately is having a one-stop service where people could come in and deal with planning and zoning or pay their water bill,” clerk of council Anthony Rodgers said. “Everything would be centrally located in one place.”

The current two-story Government Center, 6131 Taylorsville Road, is about 11,000 square feet, with 500 of that the conference room, which seats 18.

Discussions included adding 515 square feet to the conference room to increase seating capacity to 30 people; upgrading the city’s technology capabilities, such as mass wireless access; and addressing the heating and cooling systems.

The proposed improvements would have cost anywhere in between $110,000 and $140,000, but at this time, the city doesn’t “want to put any money into actual plans,” interim assistant city manager Scott Falkowski said.

“They can come back up and be looked at again,” he said. “There’s not a need to pursue it any further right now.”

The courts building, 6111 Taylorsville Road, is 13,000 square feet. The county leases it for $18,044.69 per year and the 20year lease expires Oct. 15, 2018, according to Finance Director Jim Bell.

“We want our residents to utilize as many services here in the city, and our officers go there for cases,” Falkowski said. “Any cooperation that we have with the county and other municipalities, we definitely want to keep.”

The city leases space in the Huber Centre for $72,000 a year. The water department’s lease expires at the end of 2013 and the tax department’s is on a year-to-year basis, and both of those contracts could be renewed, Falkowski said.