The Town of Irmo is in the latter planning stages of a 10,000 sq. ft. municipal facility to replace the current outdated town hall at the corner of Woodrow St. and Columbia Ave.
“The house has served us well,” said Town Administrator Courtney Dennis. “We’re struggling here for room in order to provide more efficiency and quality services to our residents.”
The current Town Hall is a Victorian style structure and was a home to the Mathias Lown family, built in 1905, and located on St. Andrews Rd. where Advanced Auto Parts now sits. It was gifted to serve the town in 1987 when it was moved and opened as Irmo Town Hall in 1988.
The house holds all the administration offices for the town and now is just too small.
“We love the small town charm of the space but Irmo is growing,” Dennis said. “We realized a few years ago that our town services needed to keep up with a rise in our staff and the need for modern technology which the new space will provide.”
The entrance to the Moore Park at Mosely Ave. and Church St. was chosen as the ideal spot to hold the two wing, one story building. “It’s centrally located in the town and quite beautiful there,” said Irmo Mayor Bill Danielson. “There is plenty of parking and the building will be constructed to blend with its environment.”
Town Council has done their due diligence over the the past few years in choosing how the building will compare with other municipalities and that the location made the most sense.
“Our residents expect a high level of quality,” says Danielson. “This complex will serve the community for decades to come.”
The building’s wings will be divided by a display/waiting area that could house Irmo historical displays, community art or yet to be determined objects. The community/conference wing will seat up to 180 people and can be used for conferences, meetings or seminars. The administration wing will hold all the business offices and staff.
The 5.8 million dollar cost for the facility could be viewed as a bit pricey, but thanks to financial assistance from Congress and the State Budget, three million of that amount was secured for the project. The remaining 2.8 million could come from the town’s reserves. “We’ve been fiscally conservative over the last few years,” said Danielson. “We’re not done looking for other funding to help relieve the burden to our tax payers.”
The town is holding a public open house on Monday, February 24 in the Irmo Municipal building located at 7300 Woodrow St. to unveil artist’s conceptions of the new facility and receive input from the community. The event will begin at 6pm – 8pm.
