Loudon City officials are pressing for the new facility to be built down town on the Hutch Mfg. site.
Loudon city officials have invested more than 1.6 million dollars in the 11 acre site with early intentions of building a new city hall and LUB facilities on the site. However, sometime after they purchased the property, they decided to abandon the idea of building on the Hutch site and chose to move all their facilities to Hwy. 72 where they purchased two abandoned buildings to move all city and LUB operations at a cost of nearly 2.5 million dollars.
While the city chose not to build on the Hutch property and maintain their downtown presence, they seem to feel it important that the county build on the property. Why did Loudon/LUB not want to build on the site? Maybe it was as one councilman said, it was time to move on and try something different. Maybe it was as another councilman said, It would be cheaper to buy the abandoned buildings on Hwy. 72 and remodel them than it would be to build new facilities. Maybe it was as yet another councilman said, building the city offices on the property would hurt the city's ability to market the property to a development that might want all the property. A phase II environmental study was done in 2017 that showed Arsenic, barium, chromium, lead, and mercury contamination throughout the site. Maybe city officials just didn't want to locate their new facilities on in that.
What ever the reason they chose not to build their city hall and LUB offices on the property was their decision. Just not sure why they feel it's so important for county to build ours there now.
The Justice Center is the only logical location for the new Annex/Criminal Justice building for the safety and security of our officers. Building the new Annex/Criminal Justice building three miles away from the Justice Center would be the same as building a new home then building your garage three miles away. Doesn't make a lot of since.
