The Nederland City Hall will open the doors of its new location to the public on Monday, Sept. 23.

A prison crew began moving furniture from the old location, which has been home to the Nederland City Council since 1968, to the new location, located at 207 N. 17th Street.

The funds for the building came out of a port security grant project to build the city’s new fire station and remodel the police station and emergency operations center (EOC), said Chris Duque, Nederland city manager. But the city had difficulty finding land that met the fire chief’s needs.

“A fire station needs to be centrally located — it cannot be at one extreme or the other,” Duque said. “It was almost impossible to find the right spot for an acceptable price.”

Finally, it was decided that a new city hall would be built, and the former city hall, located on Boston Avenue, would be renovated to meet the needs of the police and fire departments, which will now share the building. The Nederland City Council awarded a $1.265 million bid to the Beaumont-based company Bruce’s General Construction in January, and work on the buildings began in February. The city was able to use its capital outlay fund for the project, so the building is already paid.

“From a financial standpoint, we did not have to issue any debt to pay for this building,” Duque said.

The former city hall, located on Boston Avenue, had a lot of wasted space,  Duque said. But that problem has been fixed with the new city hall, which is  more energy efficient with greater technology improvements.

 “It was an older design, and the layout was very inefficient,” Duque said. “This new building is a lot more tightly configured and much better organized — there’s really no dead space.”

The city hall will open to the public at 8 a.m. on Monday. There is still a night deposit box at the former building for water bill payments, Duque said.

Email: ecallahan@panews.com

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