The new Knoxville Public Safety/City Hall building project continues to move forward.

The new facility, which will be located off Highway 14 in Knoxville, will go out for bid in October and the ground breaking is expected the following November. At a July city council meeting, the council approved ordering of the bids for the architectural precast project material, which has a six-to-seven month wait time. The original plan was for the city to use a significant amount of metal for the project, but after review, the city decided to move to precast, because it is expected to give the building an extra 40 years of life, despite the initial extra cost of over a million dollars. The precast material will also require less maintenance. 

The total cost of the project will be between $16.1 Million and $17.3 Million and will be paid for by local option sales tax, with no direct financial impact to taxpayers. To learn more about the project, follow the link here to see the presentation given to the city council by Wendel Companies, who is the architect for the project.