Decatur City discusses $2.5 million earmark for Matthews facility renovation

At a meeting that began at 9:30 a.m., Decatur City officials discussed earmarking $2,500,000 to renovate the municipal facility identified in the agenda as “Matthews,” with design work already paid and a formal vote planned on the council agenda.

City staff said an architect previously engaged to produce design work provided an estimate above $2 million; after comparing local construction costs, staff proposed increasing the renovation budget to $2.5 million to ensure sufficient funds and contingencies. The transcript shows staff explaining the change: “we ended up changing it to 2,500,000.0 just to make sure we had enough money in the budget to do what we needed to do at [Matthews],” (Staff member).

A council member asked whether the project would be managed in-house or contracted; staff replied a decision had not yet been made and that any contract or change in staffing would require council approval. Presiding official said, “I think we need to do it.”

The meeting record does not show a completed vote on the $2.5 million figure. Council participants said they had requested the item be moved to the start of the regular agenda and that the council would vote on it at that time.

The discussion also referenced a prior packet item showing a budget breakout and noted that the design phase had already been paid. The transcript contains inconsistent spellings of the facility name (appearing as “Katie Matthews,” “Cary Matthews,” and “Carrie Matthews”); the agenda and discussion identify the item only as the Matthews renovation.

Council members did not specify funding sources in the portion of the transcript provided. The item was framed as an earmark to enable moving forward with renovation work pending the council vote.

The council indicated the item would be taken up as the first action once the regular agenda began.