The Town of Parrish will soon have a new town hall after recently purchasing the former First National Bank of Hamilton-Parrish building on Highway 69.
Parrish Mayor Bubba Cagle said in an interview with The Community Journal on Tuesday the town council approved the purchase at a special called meeting on Aug. 10. The town agreed to pay $150,000 for the two-story building, which the bank originally had an asking price of $500,000.
“It’s something that we’ve talked about for a while, and I didn’t really know if it would happen, but they accepted our offer, and that was a deal to good for us to pass up,” Cagle said.
During a community meeting for the town’s economic development strategic plan on Tuesday, Cagle announced the purchase to Parrish residents.
“This is something I think our entire town will be proud to see happen,” Cagle told The Community Journal. “It’s going to be the first thing you see driving in from Jasper. It’s a nice building that will allow us to do much more in how we serve our citizens.”
Cagle said one positive of the new building will be the town hall and police station can both be housed there, but they will be separate. Cagle suggested the police department would take up the upstairs and have its own entrance on the back side of the building.
“I’ve never liked that people needing to talk to or be interviewed by our police department have to come in the same building in the same area where one of their neighbors might be paying their garbage bills,” he said.
Cagle said the built-in drive-thru will also be an addition that could be helpful, especially if there is ever a similar situation to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also said the electronic sign will useful to post events and messages residents may need to know.
“It’s obvious that I’m excited about it,” Cagle said. “Our town has worked hard to improve our financial standing. We’ve worked hard ti better serve this community, and this will be a visual reminder of that hard work.”
While engineers still need to look over the building to determine exact renovations needed, Cagle said his hope is the town hall can be moved into the former bank building by January 2024.
“There’s not a lot that needs to be done,” he said. “If we needed to, we could almost move in immediately, but we want it to be nice. We want it to look right, but I do think January is possible.”
Cagle said the town will be seeking grants to help pay for the renovations.
As far as the current town hall location, Cagle said there are no concrete plans at this time. He said it could be used by the street department, but said that department could also move to the old Parrish High School location. Cagle also said the current town hall could be rented or leased.
“There are many possibilities,” he said. “We will see what works best for the town and our citizens.”
