(3/16) The Woodsboro Town Council voted unanimously to approve the proposed site plan for the much anticipated new town hall, to be located at the site of the old JR Sports Bar and Restaurant, a.k.a. The Hut, on Main Street.
The Town of Woodsboro has never had an official town hall to gather and conduct town business in. Town meetings are currently conducted in the back meeting room of Saint John’s Church and Town business is being conducted in a trailer at the waste water treatment facility. "Finally having an ‘official’ Town Hall will address long pent-up hopes and dreams of the residents of Woodsboro" Burgess Barnes said.
Barnes said he has his fingers crossed that the old adage "third time is the charm" rings true for the latest design. The first design had to be thrown out when the town opted to not build the town hall on a lot originally purchased in 2018 that turned out to be too narrow to build a suitable hall on.
When the Town purchased the larger JR Sports Bar and Restaurant lot, the architects had to go back to the drawing board. While their second proposal was good, it didn’t fully meet the expectations of the town’s Planning & Zoning Commission.
The current site plans however seems to have hit the nail on the head. In the proposed plan, the new town hall will have a circular one-way driveway around it, with a 22-car parking lot in the back. There will be five additional parking spots in the front, one of which will be designated for handicap vehicles.
Residents who choose to walk to the Town Hall will be able to access it via a walkway with grass borders running perpendicular from the walkway on the street to the glass front doors. "What I like about this" Barnes said, "is people will not be forced to walk through a parking lot to enter the building."
The grass strip in front of the town hall will also provide room for a flagpole and town sign, and maybe, some day, a bench for people to sit on.
While the layout of the hall is still early in the planning stage, the current design for the 2,960 square foot building has plans for a conference room on the right immediately upon entrance, with the town manager’s office on the left adjoining the file room. The Burgess’s office will be adjacent to the front conference hall.
The middle of the building will consist of a ‘kitchenette’ and bathrooms, with the back part of the hall set aside as a large conference room with the ability to seat 40.
Barnes’ noted that one of the nice revisions to the plans was the segmentation of the hall into two parts, which would allow the front section to be locked while allowing the back section, including the bathrooms, to be used by groups like the Lions Clubs without worrying about the security of town offices or records.
The site plan will now be reviewed by the County, and all necessary permits applied for. Barnes was unable to give the Council a firm guess as to how long the County approval process will take, but said that he "was already calling everyone he knew to fast track the process and was going to leave no stone unturned when it came to moving the project forward as fast as it could."
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