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Category: Davis Hall

Council Mulls Adding Audio Visual Capacity to Davis Hall

By

On April 30, 2017

In Davis Hall

Thinking of Council meetings at Davis Hall with live broadcast to City residents? That’s what the City Council will discuss at this week’s Council meeting.

This capacity would provide a backup location for Council meetings, as well as enable the recording and broadcasting of other meetings. The proposed layout would allow for an audience of approximately 45 people. The maximum capacity of the Davis Hall multipurpose room is 88 people (without tables).

City IT staff have received cost estimates for the basic AV equipment and installation required to record meetings, and the equipment required in order to broadcast and live-stream meetings at Davis Hall.

The equipment would be stored in a secure cabinet in Davis Hall when not in use. The cost of installing the required equipment will range from about $27,000 to $35,000. A sample listing of the equipment costs is attached from the A/V Company.

Staff thinks adding services like streaming and titles after the initial installation would not incur any significant additional costs compared to installing all of the services at one time.

Davis Hall AV Layout

City Eyes to Acquire Property Next to Davis Hall in North College Park

By

On December 9, 2014

In Davis Hall, Development

Portion Next to Davis Hall

Portion of the Stone property next to Davis Hall

Last week, I asked the Council to have a followup discussion on acquiring the small grassy area of the Stone Industrial site, next to Davis Hall. This is an idea staff suggested first to us last month.

Staff has prepared an exhibit showing four options for subdividing the vacant property on the south side of the Department of Public Works (please see in the left). The broker has indicated that their main focus is finding one buyer for the entire 17 acre site, however they would welcome an aggressive expression of interest (to buy a apportion of the site), which could be discussed with a buyer interested in the entire property.

The deadline for submitting bids on the property has already passed, and seven investors have submitted bids.  All of these entities are currently bidders, none are entities that would use the property themselves, so none have proposed a specific long-term use of the property.

At this point, the broker is not asking for an offer, but only a letter identifying the plat area and the possible use of the property. The Council will discuss whether to send a letter expressing its interest in acquiring the portion of the site, and may consider sending a letter to the broker.

City to Spend $1M on Davis Hall Improvement

By

On April 24, 2012

In Council, Davis Hall

Davis Hall

At tonight’s regular meeting, the Council will introduce an ordinance to amend FY 2012 budget to fund public works modular building replacement and City Hall expansion.

In FY2011, the City had an undesignated surplus of $1,405,053. We have previously identified the need for capital project funding for the Public Works Facility modular building replacement and the proposed City Hall expansion.

In order to reduce the need for borrowing for these projects, staff is proposing that we transfer $1,400,000 from the unassigned (formerly known as “undesignated”) reserve to the C.I.P. $1,000,000 should cover the estimated cost of the modular building replacement, including removal of the existing modular building and site preparation.

The remaining $400,000 is a deposit toward the City Hall expansion. The FYI3 requested budget provides an additional $500,000 for the City Hall expansion project.

This budget amendment reduces the unassigned reserve as a percentage of the FYI3 requested expenditure budget from 38.84% to 29.18%.

A public hearing will be held on the proposed Ordinance at 7:20 p.m. on the 8th day of May, 2012.

[Council member Wojahn and I will miss the public hearings tomorrow night and possibly the beginning of the meeting, because the County public hearing on the Park and Planning budget will be taking place at the same time.  We will be there to testify in support of earlier funding for a feasibility study for the North College Park Community Center, as well as for a number of other projects to improve Birch Field and other College Park facilities.]

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