Published: June 14, 2009 09:32 pm      

Vidor seeks to reduce new City Hall costs

VIDOR — A less than ideal economy has forced city officials to reconsider construction costs of a new City Hall.

Vidor council members held a workshop session at the start of Thursday’s regularly scheduled council meeting to discuss the ongoing Vidor City Hall project.

Vidor City Hall was severely damaged during Hurricane Rita in Sept. 2005. Since that time Vidor’s main city office located in a double-wide manufactured home in the front parking lot of the Vidor Police Department on East Railroad.

According to Ricky Jorgensen, Vidor city manager, ever-increasing costs for the project combined with a national economy in recession, plus staying within the city budget, have factored into the decision to scale back the project.

“We primarily talked about the costs associated with the new City Hall during the workshop,” Jorgensen said. “We are going to see if we can value engineer some of the costs down from what we have now. The mayor and city council are working very hard to see how they can reduce these costs.”

The city has sold a reported $6.5 million in bonds to pay for the project, but that was before the economy really started its decline.

The old City Hall property has already been sold to a local florist, and the new property, across the street from Wal-Mart on North Main, has already been purchased.

“The architect is working on the plans to see how we can reduce the costs,” Jorgensen added. “It is quite possible city council could decide to go out for bids again. It would just depend on what the costs to re-bid would be and how much savings can actually be found.”

When the City of Vidor originally requested bids at the start of the project, only three contractors returned proposals. However, to this date, Jorgensen said no contract has been signed.

In other news, the city of Vidor is still hoping to expand by annexing an area north of its current city limits.

“We have an area we are definitely looking at,” Jorgensen said. “Now that we have a good idea of the area, I will have to get a house count and figure out the square miles involved and come back to city council with that information.”

According to Jorgensen, much of the area being considered for annexation is north of current city limits on FM 105 towards Caney Creek, including neighborhoods on Ash Street and Myrtle Drive located just off FM 1132, while making sure not to overlap into the extra-territorial jurisdiction area of Pine Forest. The annexation area could also include a portion of North Tram.

“We have to make sure we meet all of the criteria before going too far with this,” Jorgensen added. “It’s definitely a lengthy process.”

Another issue Vidor is addressing at the same time is zoning.

The city currently has no zoning ordinances, but is looking to create zoning regulations for this city of more than 11,000 residents.

“We need a comprehensive plan before we can even begin zoning, and that is required by the state,” he said. “But once we are able to implement zoning, I think it will really make a difference in the future of this city.”

In an effort to save money, the city could possibly utilize the services of a still to be determined Texas university with urban development programs to assist in the creation of such a zoning plan.

According to Jorgensen, such plans would include a list of short-term and long-term goals for the city, such as population growth, business growth and development and more.

The plan would even include a study of Vidor’s roads, residential areas and businesses, among many other facilities.

“We are taking our time on this, but it could serve us as a dual purpose with our annexation plans,” Jorgensen said.



Tommy Mann Jr. is a reporter for The Orange Leader. He can be reached at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2619 or tmann@orangeleader.com