date for city complex

By MICHELLE J. WILSON

Staff Writer

Dec. 13, 1999 11 PM

Troy Police and Fire Departments will be getting new offices in the new year.

Renovations at the City of Troy Municipal Complex should be complete by year’s end, according to Mayor Jimmy C. Lunsford.

In early January the departments and the Southeast Alabama Gas District are expected to move into phase two of the municipal complex, which is located between Academy and Elm streets across from city hall, he said.

They are waiting to move until after the new year so that any issues involving the year 2000 can be resolved before the relocation, Lunsford said.

The $4 million Troy Municipal Complex project was split into two phases.

Phase two of the project includes renovations and additions to the Public Safety Building, Lunsford said. Also underway are improvements to the Southeast Alabama Gas District Building.

New parking lots, landscaping and sidewalks will be added to tie together the three-block complex.

"These major improvements in the area should complement the Downtown Redevelopment Project," Lunsford said.

Work on Phase Two began this past winter. It includes Troy Fire Department, which will be located between City Hall and the old Public Safety Building. The renovated Public Safety Building will house the Troy Police Department, Municipal Court, magistrate’s office and jail.

Additions and renovations being made to the Public Safety Building will transform it into a more user-friendly facility for the police department, Lunsford said. The work includes relocating municipal court to the first floor so it will be closer to the jail. This move will help protect officers, prisoners and citizens, he said.

The second floor will house the police department. The third floor will store records and house the evidence and dark rooms. Another change is moving the front entrance of the police department from Elm Street to North Brundidge Street.

"This will be so much better for the public and police department," he said.

Phase One was completed X. It includes an addition to city hall, renovations to the Old National Guard Armory and the addition of a general maintenance building.

Both parts of the municipal building are now handicap accessible. Along with the addition came a face lift for all the municipal buildings to make the whole complex have the same architectural style, he said.

Whaley Construction Company is working on the renovations.

Right now, city contractors are putting the finishing touches on phase two, Lunsford said.

They are completing drainage structures around Walnut and Academy streets. These areas should be fully open to traffic within two weeks, he said.

This work is being done by Floyd construction Company.

Construction crews are finishing the inside of the public safety building, Lunsford said.

Steps will be added to connect the upper and lower parking lots. A strip of lawn will be added through the center of the parking lots to give the area a park environment, he said.

A nine-foot monument to commemorate the city’s Year 2000 Celebration will be erected in front of city hall at the center of the Troy Municipal Complex as a finishing touch.

"It will be leftover after our celebration and left for the next century," Lunsford said. "The names of our celebration committee members will be inscribed at the base of the monument."

The monument, which will consist of "a perpetual gas-operated flame," will be created by Brundidge artist Ronald Godwin, he said.

Godwin’s work is well under way. The structural foundation has been built. It is expected to be unveiled May 6 at the final event in the city’s millennium celebration.