West U Showcases Improvements to City Hall with Community Open House

The City of West U celebrated the recent improvements to its municipal building on Monday night with an open house showcasing the renovations.

IT Director Gary McFarland showed off the “nerve center of the city,” or Information Technology communications center, during the city's municipal building open house on Monday night.

Nearly 20 people gathered after the city council meeting to enjoy light refreshments and take a walking tour of the upgraded facilities.

Former Mayor Bob Kelly thanked city staff and city council for a “really successful undertaking” and said that it was “incredible what all was done.”

Kelly said that the goal of the project was to make it look like the buildings had always been there.

“The citizen’s money was well spent,” he said.

Both Mayor Bob Fry and City Manager Michael Ross recognized PGAL, the city’s architect for the project.

Ross led the walking tour, which included the new police department addition, new emergency operations center, fire station, finance department and general building upgrades.

Captain Thad Olive led the group through the police station, showcasing the department’s new sally port for prisoners to be securely brought into the jail, a spacious evidence room and an armory, amongst other things.

Prior to the renovations, the police department was located in a 6,038 sq. ft. station that flooded during Tropical Storm Allison and had structural foundation issues. Most of the city’s computer and 911 equipment were housed in closet space. The department had also been using former closet space as offices.

Fire Chief Steve Ralls led the group through the city’s Emergency Operations Center, which contains a state-of-the-art video wall with audio visual equipment and is outfitted with computers, phones and televisions.

Ralls also showcased the new locker rooms and showers for male and female employees and seven new individual dorm rooms for the city’s firefighters, amongst other improvements.

IT Director Gary McFarland showed off the “nerve center of the city,” or Information Technology communications center, which houses a centralized computer room with redundant network devices, backup power sources and air conditioning systems. The IT communications center also houses the 911 and direct link systems.

Finance Director Rhonda Daugherty ended the tour by showcasing the new supervisor office and updated staff cubicles in the Finance Department.

The new two-story facility was completed in July and came with a price tag of $5.9 million with an additional $400,000 for furniture, fixtures and audio visual equipment for the completed rooms.