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ELKINS -- Elkins City Council has announced renovations of the council chambers at City Hall are underway.
"We've been talking about this for a while," said Jessica Sutton, Elkins City Clerk. "Several years ago we actually changed the configuration of the existing furniture to try to have a better flow of communication, both between the council members and the mayor … as well as being able to project to the public, given the size of the room (…) and the ability of our sound system."
The project was originally discussed by city council's Municipal Properties committee, and then again by the Finance committee once cost quotes were obtained.
"Originally, we were just going to do the furniture and then council decided 'No, if we're going to do new furniture, let's do the other things that go along with that,'" Sutton said.
The current plans are to replace the carpet, re-treat the windows and install a new sound system, along with the new furniture, at an estimated cost of $31,000. The original wooden pews and the gated barrier between the public and the council will remain unchanged.
"The only thing that we're not able to do, and it's just a matter of finding someone who is knowledgeable about it, is to repair the ceiling because they're a special kind of tiles," said Sutton. "That's the one piece of the puzzle that we're still continuing to work on but we decided to go forward with the rest."
The new locations of the council seats will be diagonal to either side of the dais. The riser where Mayor Van Broughton, Sutton and city attorney Gerri Roberts sit will be removed to bring everyone to the same level.
"In a lot of City Hall, the furniture, the rooms and the structure inside is outdated," Broughton said. "We have a building that's 100 years old and there's no way to truly replace it, so we've been going room by room."
"Our council chambers were a big problem," the mayor added. "Even just the windows, when you have a council meeting in the evening, the sun would come in and make it really hot, so we had to work on our windows and blinds."
"The council chambers weren't user-friendly. The sound system was awful, the furniture wasn't the best, and the structure of the seating and the tables meant that a lot of the public couldn't make eye contact," he said. "No one wants to spend money, but this is important for us to move forward and be more user-friendly."
Broughton stressed taking on this large a project all at once will save the city money in the long run.
"It's a good time for the electricians to get in and do some updates to the wiring," he said. "We've got to make sure the foundation's good and strong, but also the inner-workings of City Hall itself need updated so this was a good time to get it all done."
While the renovations were not initially budgeted as a line-item, the excess revenue in the city's General Fund wil fund their completion.
"There is a certain amount of money that is put in the budget as 'City Hall Admin Expenses,'" Sutton said. "Basically, the money would've just come, at some point, out of the General Fund."