South Bend Mayor James Mueller today announced the new City Hall will open to the public on Monday, Oct. 13. The city is leaving the County-City Building after 54 years.
Mueller says the move’s roughly $10 million cost will be offset by gained efficiency. It gets city government out of a deteriorating building owned by St. Joseph County, and it lets the city consolidate its water works and building departments, which have had their own buildings.
The mayor said the city is always trying to digitize more services so people don’t have to come to a physical building. But for those who still prefer to, the new City Hall, in the former South Bend Community Schools headquarters on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, will have a first-floor customer service center.
Mueller said complaints about the 1971 building’s dilapidated state had topped the list of concerns in surveys of the city’s roughly 200 employees. And then the school corporation decided to move its administration to the former Browne Intermediate building.
“Government office buildings or a new City Hall wasn’t necessarily at the top of the former mayor’s list or my list coming into office, but we were presented with an opportunity from the South Bend schools,” Mueller said.
Mueller admitted he’ll miss his 14th floor view.
“But as I tell people, the view looking out is a lot better than the view looking in. Unfortunately this building is in need of a lot of work and help.”
