The council could discuss the proposed purchase in executive session during the meeting.
With an estimated $660,000 price tag the purchase of the building could culminate a process that began in 2002 when a $12.6 million police bond issue to fund the new Temple Police Department building passed. Funding was included for renovation of the old police building as a court facility.
Funding of more than $2 million is available for the court facility from previous bond issues and restricted court funds.
Funding of $900,000 is available for the utility business office from 2006 and 2008 utility revenue bonds, according to the city. The property purchase would be split with the court having about 74 percent of the cost and the business office 26 percent.
Over the years the city explored other options for a new facility, including building a new structure on the old police department site and a new facility in other areas of town. But it appears to have arrived at renovation of the former bank building to house the two city branches.
“For past several years the city has been trying to address some of our facility needs related to our municipal court and our utilities office,” David Blackburn, Temple city manager, said. “We’ve looked at multiple sites and at least five different locations over the past year.
“We appropriated funds from several years ago and the project has been moving along since then, and we’re finally getting to the point where we’re actually making a recommendation for acquisition of property.”
First Baptist Church of Temple owns the building. Representatives of the church did not return a call on Wednesday.
In 2007 a space requirement survey showed that the two city entities required a total of 17,105 square feet - 12,620 square feet for the municipal court and 4,485 square feet for the utilities business office.
The study showed currently the court building has 4,000 square feet available. The court staff processes 30,000 to 36,000 tickets annually.
The water business office has a staff of 12 and processes about 20,500 bills per month in a 2,400-square-foot space.
The two-story bank building is 15,304 square feet, rests on 1.63 acres and has 72 parking spaces.
City plans include adding about 3,000 square feet to the north side of the building for a courtroom.
If the council approves the purchase, design work would begin once studies confirm the building can be renovated for the proposed uses.
Also at the meeting the council will have the first and final reading and have a public hearing on issuing $16 million in combination tax and revenue certificates of obligation for Tax Increment Finance Reinvestment Zone Number One improvements.
The total cost of the improvements is about $22.3 million, according to Blackburn, but a rail improvement component will be funded at a later date.
The other improvements to be funded will include Wendland Road and underground storm water improvements, a wastewater lift station and the Elm Creek Detention pond. Those projects are related to the Gulf States Toyota center which officials anticipate will locate in Temple.
Improvements are planned for the Bioscience Park, Airport Park, Southeast Industrial Park and phase two of the Outer Loop project.
The bids for the bonds will be announced later, but Traci Barnard, Temple’s director of finance, said the city does not seem to be experiencing problems with bond pricing in spite of the current economic climate.
“We’re not seeing problems with the cost of financing - we’ve not seen it today on our bids,” she said.
Blackburn said he did not anticipate problems with the bonds.
“Temple has been very fortunate to have the local banks really be very aggressive toward buying our bonds and doing private placements,” he said.
“We have yet to experience the kinds of issues some are having across the country,” he added. “My sense is that it’s due to a combination of a number of factors - confidence in our local economy, a diversified economy, confidence in our local government and our bond rating.”
The city’s bond rating is Aa3 from Moody’s Investor Service and AA- from Standard and Poor’s.
