The Grantsville City Council will need a second look at final renderings of a proposed $3.6 million justice center before approval, but moved ahead on a municipal bond to fund the project during its meeting Wednesday night.
The 12,757-square-foot building will house the city’s police department and justice court, which have outgrown their current space in Grantsville City Hall. The new justice center will be built on Bowery Street, north of the city library.
The council authorized a lease agreement between the city and the Municipal Bond Authority of Grantsville City to issue and sell bonds not to exceed $2.7 million. The $2.7 million figure aligns with the amount of a 30-year, 2.5-percent interest loan the city received for the new building from the state Community Impact Board on Oct. 20.
Alex Buxton of Zions Bank was on hand to answer questions by the city council, which also serves as the Municipal Bond Authority the lease agreement is through. Buxton said the city was on pace to close on the bond next month and bids for construction on the project have already been received.
While funding for the $3.6 million facility is coming together, the city council pumped the brakes on approving the final design and specifications for the joint police and court building.
Grantsville City Police Chief Kevin Turner said final plans were similar to previous floor plans with the only changes being furniture placed in different areas. The city council approved a $182,000 bid from JRCA Architects, a Salt Lake City-based firm, to design the proposed justice center back in March.
Grantsville City Mayor Brent Marshall said the design is intended to benefit the most frequent users of the justice center. Features of the building include a community room and sally port, to safely transport prisoners into the justice court.
“I think this building is a building that is, much like the library, much like the fire station, is a building that needs to function for the people that are going to be utilizing the building,” he said.
Councilman Tom Tripp said he did not have a chance to review the final blueprints and technical documents for the new justice center since they were received by the city on Monday. Councilwoman Krista Sparks, who attended the meeting via teleconference, motioned to have the approval of the final design pushed off until the council’s Nov. 16 meeting, which was unanimously approved.
The council did approve a motion to declare the existing recreation center behind the library as surplus property in order to sell the structure and its contents, including the solar panels on the roof of the building. Marshall said the solar panels, which were purchased with a federal grant via the state, would cost about $31,000 to remove and re-install on the new justice center.
Instead, the plans for the justice center call for installing a generator in the building, which would be cheaper, Marshall said.