Lexington mayor gives update on future of civic center

LEXINGTON, Tenn. — City officials gave an update on a historic building and why it might not be around much longer.

$5.3 million – that’s how much it would cost taxpayers to save the old Lexington Civic Center, which houses the historic Lexington City School.

WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News covered the original closing of the civic center back in July 2019.

The building doubled as the Henderson County Senior Center.

Public hearings were filled with questions about why they needed to vacate the building.

Lexington Mayor Jeff Griggs said staying in the building simply wasn’t an option.

“Parts of the building would have to be taken down. You’ve got asbestos, mold, lead based paint, things like that,” Griggs said.

The city ordered a survey to be done on the building. The cost to repair was nearly five times what they originally expected.

“The part that’s facing where the church is, the minimum in this was like 5.3 million to redo that part,” Griggs said. “That’s money that you’d have to raise taxes to pay that.”

Pictures from the survey show issues like support walls crumbling, water damage throughout the building, and more.

The Lexington City Council will hear bids to demolish the structure, which will cost around $400,000.

In the meantime, they moved the senior center to some nearby buildings. However, neither Lexington nor Henderson County still have a civic center.

“As great a city and county we got, we don’t have anywhere people can go,” Griggs said.

Mayor Griggs wants the city to look at building an entirely new civic center, rather than trying to rebuild the old one.

“I feel like it’s time that our community move forward. We need a new facility that can take care of all the needs people have in our community,” Griggs said.

Mayor Griggs says the city is willing to split the cost of building a new civic center with the county.