Cookeville Budget Includes $775k in City Hall Upgrades

Cookeville’s newest budget proposal includes nearly $775,000 in upgrades at City Hall.

Finance Director Brenda Imel said the proposed upgrades include a new HVAC unit, window replacement, and painting the exterior of the building.

“City hall needs some work and needs some attention. That building was built in the 1960s and we’re going to be there for a long time,” Imel said. “We need to do something, especially with the HVAC unit. We had put some money in the budget this year and hired an engineer that came and looked at it, gave [City Manager Mike Davidson] some proposals and some different options on what to do there.”

City Manager Mike Davidson said engineers recommended replacing the windows to help cut down on energy costs.

“They said that’s the first thing we need to do is replace those old windows that we’ve got,” Davidson said. “We got an estimate for that and that’s around $100,000 to replace those windows. With the HVAC system, based on tonnage and estimates per ton, hopefully, we can get it in there for $650,000.”

City officials discussed the proposed upgrades during a special city budget work session on Thursday.