City Of Ste. Genevieve Moving Operations During Renovation
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By MARK EVANS
STE. GENEVIEVE HERALD
“You can’t fight city hall,” an old saying used to go.
Next week, in Ste. Genevieve, the axiom may be “You can’t find city hall” – at least for those not paying attention.
Actually, the city offices will not be hard to find, they will just be across town in the Pointe Basse Plaza.
On Tuesday, the city staff will be moving from the city hall building at 165 N. Fourth Street to its temporary home at 44 Plaza Drive. The new location is next to Domino’s Pizza.
The city hall building will be undergoing a renovation, set to start on Wednesday.
“City hall will technically be closed because be will be packing and loading that day,” City Administrator Happy Welch said.
Welch anticipates being fully functional by the next day at 44 Plaza Drive – at least that is the game plan.
“That’s what we’re shooting fork” he said last Friday. “We’ll be going out with our IT folks next week to see how we can set things up.
“It’s not a fancy set-up,” Welch said. “We’re going to run wires across the floor and along baseboards and will just try to make it work as a temporary situation.”
He stressed that because water bills are due Aug. 15, the city will allow them to be paid by 5 p.m., Friday, Aug. 18 without assessing a late fee.
Although a number of unforeseen things have cropped up, like with any move, Welch said they have not affected the plan.
“We have resolved whatever issues there have been,” he said. “We’ll see what happens when we get moved in.”
He stressed that Tuesday (Aug. 15) will be the only day city hall is not open for business.
“We’ll be frenzied on Monday and frenzied on Wednesday, but we’ll at least be open,” Welch said, “on North Fourth Street Monday and 44 Plaza Drive on Wednesday.”
He said he expects Donze Constriction to start work on the city hall building the day after the move.
The goal date to be moved back in is Feb. 15. Welch said he definitely wanted everything to be back in place in plenty of time for the municipal elections in April.
LONG TIME IN PLANNING
The city hall project has been discussed since the spring of 2019. The city looked at either moving or renovating the building, its home since 1977 and a gas station and then a bowling alley before that.