By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster leaders said they are ready to approve a project to renovate the former City Hall building to give the Alabaster Police Department room to expand.

City Council members voiced support for the project during a July 7 work session, and said they intend to follow through with their plans to renovate the building for the Police Department.

“This is something we said we were going to do. My opinion is that we need to follow through with it,” City Council President Scott Brakefield said. “It’s certainly needed.”

Council members Sophie Martin, Russell Bedsole, Tommy Ryals and Stacy Rakestraw also said they supported moving forward with the project. Council members Bob Hicks and Rick Walters were absent from the work session.

The Police Department currently occupies the lower floor of the former City Hall building, which was built in the 1950s. The department now has more than 80 employees to serve a population of more than 30,000 residents – exponentially more than the department served when it moved into its current space.

The upper floor of the old City Hall has been vacant since Alabaster’s administrative offices moved into the new City Hall building nearly a year ago.

Alabaster City Manager George Henry said the renovations likely will total about $100,000, and will include rewiring for phone and Internet, an interior build out, purchasing a dispatch console and installing security measures near the front entrance. The project’s final cost will be determined by bid amounts.

Alabaster Police Chief Curtis Rigney said the department has secured $15,000 from the Shelby County 911 agency to use toward the project.