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WEIRTON -- The City of Weirton may be taking the next step in its plans for the construction of a new public safety facility.
During Wednesday's meeting of the city Finance Committee, an ordinance authorizing a feasibility study for the proposed complex received a unanimous recommendation from committee members. The ordinance will be up for the first of two votes by the full city council Monday.
If approved, the contract for the feasibility study would cost the city $21,000.
Ward 7 Councilman Terry Weigel, who is sponsoring the ordinance, noted a committee of council representatives recently reviewed a group of submissions from contractors interested in the project.
"We had 16 different inquiries about it," Weigel said. "We had nine proposals."
Council previously had budgeted $50,000 for the feasibility study. City Manager Joe DiBartolomeo, during Wednesday's Finance Committee meeting, noted he had met with representatives of the Thrasher Group and McKinley and Associates, spending $7,000 of those allocated funds, as part of his own efforts to plan for the project.
"We were just trying to get an idea," he said, explaining no commitments had been made to either company. "They both brought in very experienced guys that that's all they do."
DiBartolomeo said those discussions, which took place before council initiated the request for qualifications process, developed a concept of a facility of 26,000 square feet, at a cost of approximately $7.5 million.
"We put in everything we could think of," DiBartolomeo said.
Previous discussions on the public safety facility have included extensions to the existing Weirton Municipal Building as well as the construction of a new building on city-owned property.
In addition to a larger facility for the Weirton Police Department, officials have proposed the facility include space for municipal court, as well as offices for the city judge and city attorney, classrooms for the police department, an office for the city fire chief and possibly even space for use by the county magistrate courts.
(Howell can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com, and followed via Twitter @CHowellWDT)