Fulton County’s elected and engaged citizens returned Wednesday to a renovated home.
County commissioners, all vaccinated, met in person for the first time since summer because of COVID-19. They came back to an assembly hall fresh off a $3.4 million overhaul.
Even with a clean and sleek room, the fully masked crowd was still capped at 70 people to reduce spread of the novel coronavirus.
The return is not standard throughout metro Atlanta.
DeKalb County’s commissioners haven’t met in person since March 2020, but Cobb County officials have been in person since summer. Gwinnett County commissioners never stopped meeting in person.
To allow for social distancing, Henry County officials created two daises, one for two commissioners in the front and a back dais for the four others to have room to spread out. In Clayton County, two members of the five-member board are in the commission chambers while the other three participate virtually.
Credit: Rebecca Wright
Credit: Rebecca Wright
Fulton’s new meeting room no longer features seafoam green carpets, burgundy velvet drapes and chairs that Commissioner Natalie Hall heard from constituents were “like sitting on concrete.”
There are still some concerns.
Chairman Robb Pitts didn’t support renovating the assembly hall, saying Wednesday he felt the previous room had character. Still, now that it’s done, he wants the room to have a plaque and some pictures of the commissioners.
But the assembly hall was only one part of Fulton’s facelift. Commissioners gathered before their morning meeting for a ribbon-cutting on the $1.6 million front entry and a refreshed $1.5 four-story main atrium. Everything seems more bright: Teal columns are now gray, chipped signs are now digital.
The 10-story building at 141 Pryor St. houses not only many of the county’s roughly 4,000 employees, but it is also where residents can renew their tags, meet with elected officials, get a business license, pay their taxes and acquire public records. That wasn’t happening.
“Four to five years ago, this place was a ghost town,” said Fulton’s head of infrastructure Ellis Kirby.
A defunct water feature obstructed the center of the atrium, the atrium’s floor was marred by yellow pads soaking up leaks from the roof, the entrance was not compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The waterfall had become a scum pond that many people left unhomed downtown used to bathe.
“It was not welcoming to our citizens,” said Commissioner Ellis Kirby.
Commissioner Lee Morris, a Republican representing Buckhead and part of Sandy Springs, said he appreciated that the changes weren’t “ostentatious.”
Fulton has had a tough time shedding its “Taj Mahal” image created years ago.
When the $70 million downtown building opened in 1990, Fulton officials were chastised for the $100,000 palm trees and $545,000 Portuguese marble sculpture along with a waterfall and indoor fountain.
Voters noted the excesses when trying to recall the county commission chairman. The leader of the opposition won his seat in the next election, in part, by making fun of the foliage.
The palm trees came down in 1998, and now the water features are also gone.
Fulton officials over the last few years have spent $30 million on not only aesthetic touches at 141 Pryor St. but upgrades to HVAC, fire alarms and the water system, said Bill Mason, the county’s facilities program manager.
Mason, who was the project executive on the overhaul, said each phase of the project took about 6 months, with minimal interruptions from COVID-19.
Credit: Rebecca Wright
Credit: Rebecca Wright
A scum pond has been replaced by fountainheads with programmable lights, think red and green for Christmas.
Nearby, there’s artificial turf that looks like the actual thing — Kirby said the key is weaving in just enough fake dead grass to make it look real.
Credit: WSBTV Videos
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