MEXICO BEACH —After five meetings, the Mexico Beach Citizens Advisory Board has recommended that City Hall should be built in Municipal Park on 21st Street across from its current home inside the Public Works building.
An objectives list from the City Council tasked the Advisory Board with not only finding a permanent home for City Hall, but to include an area for special events and adequate space for city archival and storage. The board was researching how to spend more than $600,000 in insurance money collected from the Parker House fire of 2011.
The board advised that remaining funds be earmarked to construct a transport shed to protect the Public Works vehicles and equipment from the elements, while other funds be used to expedite the electronic scanning of city documents to be cleared from the archives.
The board recommended hiring an urban planner to design a park at the former location of the historic Parker House.
City administrator Mell Smigielski said the community had an “overwhelming desire” to have a park that would pay homage to Charlie Parker, one of the city’s founders, and called it a “great use of the property.”
According to the official recommendation, the new “Parker Park” would double as a public gathering area equipped to host events.
Currently, many of Mexico Beach’s special events are held at Sunset Park, next to the El Governor Motel, but the proximity to U.S. 98 regularly raises safety concerns with police and emergency services departments.
“The group felt the public did have a chance to have their say,” said Smigielski, who acted as staff liaison for the group. “The people in the audience felt the final vote was their opinion and they were happy with the decisions made.”
While Councilwomen Mary Blackburn and Tanya Castro met the recommendation with enthusiasm, Mayor Al Cathey said he wanted to see specs on the building to be constructed and also expressed a desire to find out how citizens living near Municipal Park would feel if the property were turned into a City Hall complex.
“The advisory board is just an advisory board,” Cathey said. “We don’t need to run out and start doing things based on an advisory board.”
Castro said she liked the recommendation but agreed with Cathey, asking for more specific information on the City Hall structure so that a bid package could be put together.
She also said she liked the idea of an urban planner who would help make the “Parker Park” into a location for which the city could be proud.
“It’s a beautiful piece of property and I don’t want to go into this lightly,” Castro said. “I think the citizens advisory board worked very hard and we need to look very seriously at the recommendation to make sure it’s feasible.”
Cathey and Castro also shared concerns with putting a structure at Municipal Park when it came to setbacks, site evaluations, grant-funded playground equipment and a waterline in the area.
Advisory Board members included Gene Cline, Linda Albrecht, Gayle Putnal, Mary Lee Raulerson and former council member Bobby Pollock. Alternates were Jerry Wallace and Carol Brittain.