The Washington Chamber of Commerce, city staff and council members and other involved parties celebrated the expansion of city hall and the police and fire departments Tuesday afternoon.

City staff and council members gave tours during the afternoon for those who wanted to see the building’s three functions, and the Chamber Ambassadors congratulated the city with a ribbon cutting ceremony. City Administrator Brent Hinson gave a brief overview of the project, which he said began with a facility study that was commissioned in January of 2013, “Since that time we’ve had I think 17 council members involved in this project in one way or another in the decision making. We acquired eight properties in order to do this project.”

Hinson mentioned that the project involved relocating the main central sewer line so it wouldn’t go diagonally underneath the new location of the fire station. He added the project also garnered $2 million of spinoff development for Greiner Buildings’ renovation of the former public library and the new construction of offices where Allen Mitchell CPAs resides, “We had 9,400 square feet to start here and we added about 15,000 square feet so the complex you’ve got today went from 9,400 square feet for all these functions to about 24,000. So awesome project and great community accomplishment I think.”

The Washington City Council meeting followed the ribbon cutting, where the final pay application for release of retainage for the fire station and city hall/police department projects were approved. Work began on the new fire station in 2018 at a cost of about $2.45 million, which was then followed by the city hall/police department renovation that utilized the former fire department space at a price tag of about $1.91 million.