KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, LouisianaJennings city council to move city hall to new location

A new location for the Jennings City Hall building has been in the plans for close to a decade.

The current four-story building houses office space on the first floor and apartment space on the second, third and fourth floors. And the City is ready to get out of the landlord business, according to Jennings Mayor Terry Duhon.

"It's really too large to be used as a city hall," Duhon said. The current building also needs renovations such as plaster work, electrical, plumbing, air conditioning work.

"The roof is in bad shape," Duhon said. Along with the leaky ceilings, stained carpet, and apartment space that hasn't been updated since the 60s. The current building is 26,000 square feet and the new location is 14,000 square feet.

"Either we can renovate that building or move to a new location which is smaller and renovate that and save money," Duhon said. That's exactly what the city is doing. Moving into a smaller location in downtown Jennings where it would be cheaper to renovate.

By renovating the smaller building it would only cost about $2.2-million compared to the $5-million it would cost to renovate the current city hall building. Allowing the city more money to be saved and put toward city projects.

"Architects are telling us we're getting a better bang for our buck by doing the four projects versus the one project," Duhon said.

Projects like renovating city court, renovating the safety building by expanding it and giving more space to the fire and police departments, and renovate the public works building.

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