The City of Elsmere broke ground on its new city building Friday morning.
Mayor Marty Lenhof was joined by city council members, City Administrator Matthew Dowling, engineer D. Scott Noel, and construction workers for the occasion.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Mayor Lenhof.
The new building will be shaped like an L, and will have 15,500 square feet of space for the council chambers, administrative offices, and the police department.
That is more than twice the size of the current building and will bring together the city administration and police department, which are currently separated by several blocks.
The new building will be located at 3225 Dixie Highway, and required the removal of multiple buildings.
The city looked at eight possible locations before deciding on the spot that was previously home to Elsmere Drugs.
“I thought we could have a central location and get rid of some blight, too,” Lenhof said. “When I was down at the (Kentucky League of Cities) convention, I had people ask me, where’s Elsmere? Now we will be right on the highway where there will be no doubt where we are.”
The current city building is off Dixie on Garvey Avenue.
“Now everyone will have a chance to do all their business at one place,” said Lenhof. “This will be a one-stop shop.”
The building will be constructed with concrete masonry and brick masonry with natural limestone. The edifice also includes an emergency shelter-in-place space for city personnel and will act as the city’s hub for emergency management during a crisis.
The building is designed by D. Scott Noel from Summit Architectural Services out of Lexington. Â
The construction company is Graybach Construction of Cincinnati.
Construction is expected to be completed in January of 2022 at a cost of $5.6 million.
Written by Patricia A. Scheyer, RCN contributor