Evening star., 1954-12-15

Sits Plans TO Expand
Or Replace City Hall
Four alternate plans for re.
placement or expansion of Alex
| andria's old City Hall are being
studied by the city council.
Architects Robert Willgoos
and Dwight Chase presented the
/ proposals to the council last
night. Their plans were taken
under advisement and the
council agreed to meet with
them next mouth to decide
which plan is best.
Two of the proposals envision
construction of a big city hall
building away from the present
site. The present City Hall
would be retained for courts.
Four Plans Offered.
Here are the four plans:
/. Construction of a two-story
addition above the market place
at a cost of $400. .00o,, with re-
moval of the police deps tment
police court and police lookup to
the old Lee School Building :cn
Prince Street. The malket place
would be retained in ,si1 arcade
beneath the tWo-story. edition
/ 2. Construction of a four-story
addition above the market place
at cost of $475. 900 In this
plan, the police facilities woulo
stay at city hall. The market
would be retained in this plar
also in an arcade, beneath the
addition.
New Building Proposal. =
8. Construction of a new city
hall in the 400 block of North
st. Asaph street which would
accommodate all departments OF
the city government except court
facilities - including Juvenile
Court - and the School Board
The latter would be placed in
the old city hall building, and
the existing Juvenile Court Of
flee and School Board office
could be disposed of.
This plan also contemplates
the construction of a new police
department. jail, overnight lock-
up and Police Court facilities in
a separate structure. in the 40C
block of North Pitt Street. Esti-
mated cost of this plan is $1.5
million.
4. Construction of a new city
hall the same as recommended
in plan three. with remodeling of
the old city hall for the police
department, jail, police court and
other courts. Estimated cost of
this plan is 81, ,250,000.
Water Survey Deferred.
The council deferred action on
an offer from an engineering
firm to make a survey of the prl-
vately owned Alexandria Water
Co. and instructed City Manager
Ira Willard to get as much infor-
nation about the utility as he
can to see if the city would be
wise to acquire it.
The engineering firm proposed
to make the survey for $4,000
Councilman Frank Mann, a
member Of the Water Committee,
said much Of the information
the engineers proposed to submit
could be obtained from the State
Corporation Commission and
other public sources.
! Vice-Mayor Leroy Bendheim,
who has sponsored the move to
acquire the water company. pro-
tested that only the professional
engineers were in a position to
evaluate the water company as
sets and estimate future expend-
itures for expansion of service.
Allowed Under Law.
Mr.. Bendheim also reported
that the water company had
notified his committee it was
not interested in negotiating
a voluntary sale. Virginia law
allows a city. however, to con-
denim a water company for
municipal ownership.
Proposed revision OF the city's
utility tax was referred to the
city tax commission for study.
The change suggested by Coun-
Gilman Daniel r. O,Flaherty
would impose q tax Of 8.5 per
cent on utility billswith no
| maximum for individual meters.
The present utility tax rate is
10 per cent. with q $50 maximum
on q single meter. In many
cases, this has allowed large
apartment projects to pay only
on $50 worth of utilities for
hundreds of apartments.
City Clerk Ruth Kenney sub
mitted her resignation, but
agreed to withheld 1t until jan
uary 5 while the council studies
the grade given her job under
the city's new job classification
system.