City officials celebrate city hall groundbreaking in DHS
The city of Desert Hot Springs took a major step today towards getting a permanent home, as it broke ground on a new city hall Wednesday morning.
The golden shovels are out in the city as city leaders celebrate a new milestone by breaking ground for a new city hall.
“It’s going to be an awesome thing. I hate going into a trailer all the time,” Edward Johnson, a resident of DHS since 1992, said.
Trailers have been the city’s home for the past 15 years meant to be temporary but became more permanent as the recession affected the city’s budget. City officials say it was not meant for long term use.
“We uncovered a number of significant issues, in those trailers from structural, mold issues, I mean the list truly goes on,” Doria Wilms, assistant to the city manager, said.
Two years ago, the city council began looking at solutions to the underlying issues and determined to pay to maintain the three trailers would cost over a million dollars. They decided to turn to plan B, a new building on Pierson and Palm.
“We were able to design and now build with a budget of $5.7 million which is really small in comparison to what the community as a whole would get out of this,” Wilms said.
Mayor Scott Matas says the new city hall would make a good first impression in attracting investment and provide residents better access to city services.
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“They can be proud of walking into a city hall that has plenty of space for them and all of the departments up front, in order to be able to help them with their issues right there and not have to make appointments all the time,” he said.
Johnson says he agrees with the mayor.
“I think it’s going to draw a lot of attention to the newcomers coming into town. We’ll have a beautiful new city hall,” he said.
The new city hall is scheduled to open in fall 2020. Construction is expected to begin next week at the latest.
