Council weighs costly repairs and reuse options for aging city building

The Parker City Council spent the first portion of its Sept. 29 special meeting discussing the condition and future use of an existing municipal facility, highlighting repeated mold findings, electrical and septic problems, and structural limits that make adding on to the building impractical. Mayor-led remarks and staff summaries flagged a two-year-old mold report that recommended follow-up testing, and council members pressed for detailed cost estimates before deciding how to proceed.

“We had mold testing once. The recommendation was to do some mold testing. There was mold found in the building…If you're asthmatic, it could be problematic to you,” the mayor said while summarizing prior findings. Kent Spurgeon, the project's architect, told council the interior could be reconfigured but cautioned that older electrical service and foundation history could raise renovation costs.

Spurgeon gave a ballpark for interior renovation based on recent comparable work: “You could do a lot of renovation for a $150 a square foot,” he said, noting that work that avoids rebuilding the building shell is generally less expensive than full replacement but that aging service panels and HVAC can increase scope. Council members said they want a structural assessment of which walls are load-bearing to understand how much interior reconfiguration is feasible without major foundation work.

Councilors debated practical reuse scenarios. Options discussed included converting one end of the building to a voting center so City Hall would not be closed for elections, creating meeting rooms, or using portions for climate‑controlled storage. Several members cautioned against using flood-prone space for long‑term document storage and urged staff to prioritize health and code issues — e.g., mold remediation and septic capacity — if the building will remain in municipal use.

Action: Council asked all members to review the engineering reports and requested Mr. Spurgeon return to the council at a future meeting with clarifying information. The discussion recessed to executive session as scheduled.