WOODS CROSS—The city offered a tour of the present city hall and then held a meeting with interested residents and members of the Woods Cross City Council and the media on March 21. The purpose of the meeting was to illustrate the inadequacies of the current city hall and to invite input on what course of action should be pursued. 

The current city hall was originally built in 1969 and was much smaller than the current city hall. The Woods Cross Police with their 22 officers and support staff occupy this old section. In 1987, the second addition added office space. Finally, in 2003, an addition of more administrative space and a moderately-sized meeting room was cobbled on. The building has been settling differently over the last 60 plus years and is not as structurally sound as would be desired of a building that might support a city during a time of crisis. The current building is not earthquake safe, has no fire sprinklers and does not have ADA compliant bathrooms.

This winter, the staff at city hall were without heat for about four weeks as the aging climate control system was serviced. Parts were hard to obtain and the cost was $12,000 to repair. The space heaters used to heat individual offices were still around. One was still in the tiny, unheated men’s restroom that serves the police department. Fortunately, the bathroom was big enough for a small table to hold gun belts while using the facilities. The neighboring women’s restroom was equally as outdated. The staff is tough, putting fans and heaters as needed to keep up with the city work in the cold of winter and the heat of summer. “The whole staff is down to Earth, doing what needs to be done to get by, limping by to keep going,” Jessica Kelemen, a council member, said. “We have very low turnover among staff and they deserve adequate bathrooms, heating and cooling.” 

The janitor’s room was not well planned making it difficult to get supplies in and out of the narrow space. A door was removed to correct this problem but it connects directly into the court room. Storage is spread out all over with the Christmas supplies next to file boxes of old records in the small basement spaces.

Structurally, the metal infrastructure has deteriorated where the water pipes touch the support beams. The tour guide, Sam Christiansen, suggested that the hard water in Wood Cross, when no water softener is present, can be really corrosive on pipes. 

“Woods Cross is all done growing now with just small areas that may be developed at some point resulting in possible 10% growth in population,” Kelemen said. 

Currently the city building is near the eastern border of Wood Cross next to Hogan Park. Most of the development has occurred toward the west.

In the meeting following the tour, City Manager Bryce Haderlie explained the difficulties in the current building to a crowd of about 25 Wood Cross residents. He was especially concerned about the Police Department, noting that the evidence for certain crimes needed to be kept indefinitely and the space available would be consumed within a year or two. Haderlie also said that there was no holding cell, inadequate light in the basement gun cleaning room and not enough lockers and no room to put more for the 22 Wood Cross police officers. 

Power needs have changed significantly since the building was built pointing to a need for an operations center to run the computers throughout the building. “You expect to get about 50 years out of a building and we need to plan a structure that will serve the city well for the next 50 years,” Haderlie said. He was anxious not to create a political war as occurred in Bountiful some years ago where most of the residents were opposed to a new city hall. The purpose of the meeting, he said, was to explain the situation and get residents’ input on how to move forward so that they feel a part of the process. Haderlie said that the current city hall could be demolished and a new one built as part of the Hogan Park remodel. Other places could also be considered, like the newly purchased property near Mills Park, though he was hesitant to make suggestions wanting to get input from others in the meeting without leading them. At the end of the meeting residents filled out a survey about what they would like or suggest concerning the new city hall and parks projects. λ