Nearly two dozen citizens gathered before a closed session meeting of the Poplar Bluff City Council Wednesday evening following the release of building assessments last week of Northwest Medical Center.
City Manager Mark Massingham confirmed this morning Northwest Medical Center was on the agenda of the private meeting, but said no votes were taken and he could not comment further on discussion.
Five citizens spoke in opposition against the purchase of Northwest Medical Center on Barron Road to house city services.
After six months of city council meetings, no one has come forward to speak in favor of the purchase.
The city is set to close next month on the $3.495 million purchase for Northwest. A June 2017 estimate by architects set renovation costs at $5.595 million.
The majority owner of the building is Focus Bank.
Jim Chrisman told city officials he understood their push for a new city hall, but questioned the numbers seen by council members and not the public.
"Do real numbers exist or is that just a figment of your imagination," Chrisman asked.
While Chrisman acknowledged the current Oak Street building has been in "disgrace" for years and not maintained, he questioned how the public could have confidence the building on Barron Road would have different results.
After studying numbers that have been made available, Chrisman cited several reasons he believed city officials were making a mistake by proceeding with the purchase, which is expected to be finalized next month.
Chrisman expressed concerns over potential traffic hazards on Barron Road due to police units traveling at high speed from the location, undisclosed road improvements that will need to be made, maintenance issues of a 26-year-old building, citizen access to city services, moving the court system to a residential area and ignoring the wishes of citizens.
"How about putting this to a public vote," he said.
"In short this council should be ashamed of itself," Chrisman said in closing.
Laura Clark said she also did not understand why an election could not be held to let the citizens decide the future of city hall's location.
"The cost of an election would be miniscule in comparison to the entire purchase price of the property," Clark said. "An election, I think, would be worth the cost."
Joan Wessel, who lives on Barron Road, expressed concern over renovation costs exceeding estimates.
"Why would anyone move essential services away from the core of the city in the first place," Wessel asked. "I have to wonder why wouldn't you want to rebuild something on this ground, but make it state-of-the-art."
She suggested enlisting students from an architectural school to draw a functional design for all city services.
"You could have a beautiful location and clean up the banks of the Black River and it could be a showplace," Wessel added. "A highly functional building could be built for the amount of money you want to put into renovations. I would think you would rather build something that truly meets your needs."
Wessel also questioned why four council members would vote in favor of the purchase when the city does not have the money.
"I don't understand why move forward on a purchase of a building that citizens have asked you not to buy and don't want services there," she said. "I really encourage you to please change your minds and do not purchase this building as proposed."
Chester Pumphrey does not believe the age of a building matters as long as it's still functional.
"Repair this roof and leave the business here where it belongs," he said.
The final citizen to express opposition toward the purchase of Northwest was William Turner.
"Downtown area is home to Poplar Bluff," he said. "Downtown is heritage and we need to protect that heritage."
Turner expressed now is not the time to move out of downtown.
When people come to tour an area, Turner said they want to get a sense of what the citizens are about and where they come from, adding he does not believe this could be portrayed outside of downtown.
"I think this is a good opportunity to bring the citizens of Poplar Bluff together where they will appreciate Poplar Bluff and downtown even more," he said.