By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

The Alabaster City Council likely will hold a work session on Thursday, June 28 to discuss awarding a bid for Alabaster’s new City Hall building, council members announced during a June 14 work session.

City officials will open the bids for the project at 2 p.m. on June 21 before discussing the bids with council members at the work session, Alabaster City Administrator George Henry said.

During the work session, Henry displayed furniture and layout plans for the new two-story, 19,853-square-foot building, which will be built on the city-owned old Siluria mill site to house the city’s administrative offices, city court and other municipal departments.

Henry said the municipal courtroom in the new building will seat about 170, which is approximately the same capacity as the current courtroom in the City Hall Annex building. The new building’s conference room, which likely will be used for council work sessions and by other city boards, will seat about 14, Henry said.

The new City Hall would consolidate offices currently spread out over three buildings. The new City Hall would include a courtroom, a city office suite and 82 new parking spaces. The building’s second floor would be used for storage, and could accommodate future growth, Henry said.

About nine contractors attended a recent mandatory pre-bid conference, which was required for all companies bidding on the project.

If the council awards a bid during its July 2 meeting, the city will “start seeing some movement in August” on the construction site, Henry said. The project will take about 10 months to complete.

In other business, the council discussed possibly paying $200,000 to match an $800,000 grant to begin preliminary work on an Alabama 119 widening project between Shelby County 26 and Shelby County 80.

Henry said the money could cover items such as environmental studies, utility installation and other items to prepare for the possible widening project. The grant will not cover construction costs, and construction on the road widening can not begin until the Alabama Department of Transportation approves the project, Henry said.