Tolleson dedicates $70 million city hall complex combining library, senior center, aquatic facility

good evening everyone um i know most people on the screen but for those that may be new to tolleson or i haven't been on one of our zoo meetings my name is reyes medrano proud to be your city manager i'm also a tolleson native i grew up with merito lot and several council members corondervis we all hovered around the same age even though i'm much older of course so this is quite a quite a momentous occasion for so many of us for so many reasons the current city hall was opened in 1967 i was born in 1969 that's all i knew most of my life was at city hall my father was a vice mayor for a while he would attend meetings obviously for his term and i spent a lot of time there and i i grew up i would sleep in the chairs while his meetings were going on and he picked me up and take me home a lot of times we walk home um so there's a lot of uh fond memories in this facility but a few years ago when a former employee freddie convenis came running in my office saying something ate my granola bar i thought you know i'm used to this place but i think it's time for a new home and tonight we're gonna dedicate that location um we have such high expectations of each other and of our teammates and how we serve our community and we need to offer an environment that matches those expectations and there were many opportunities to try to pull this off throughout the years ever since we sold or authorized received a bond authorization in 2001 but there was always a missing component the stars just never aligned whether our assessed valuation wasn't high enough or the great recession hit we built everything else but city hall we always thought that should be the last the last great project but ultimately it took this council to demonstrate the political will necessary to actually go through and sell the bonds so i am very happy to be able to tell crystal samurai city clerk who loves to tell me reyes every five years you say we're gonna build city hall um it's happening and she knows it because she's been involved in the design process we've had extensive meetings and you'll see some of the product of that for that labor in a few minutes but this does not happen without our current mayor and council mayor elect obviously you were on council when the vote was taken to sell the bonds i'd also like to thank every member of the department ted team and every other member of the city of tolson staff that has participated in this effort we're just getting started but we want to celebrate every opportunity and we certainly want to celebrate this mayor and council at this particular moment because it was you that made this happen and i know i speak on behalf of every every member of my teammate of my team when we say thank you and we can't thank you enough for demonstrating the leadership necessary to match our performance expectations or our environment with our performance expectations so with that i'd like to ask mertowa to take the reigns and get this celebration going well thank you thank you reyes um great words as you know that this was a long time in the making as you had mentioned um and very thankful for our council and our mayor elect rodriguez uh we did move forward on this initiative but i also i know that a former council member uh former council member kathy farr is joining us today as well too i just want to say hello to her and thank her as well too i know she advocated greatly while she was on council for a new city hall and kathy i do promise you will see it up within two years so we will welcome you to come and visit uh with your grandkids and children as well too and we want to make sure that our community can enjoy the city hall campus because it is their that is their city hall um and as reyes mentioned it's been you know in since the mid 60s and so we definitely have outgrown um our current city hall um and so we're very excited about this opportunity and for us to present it to our community and although we would i'd love to have done this in person we all know that you know we're under some very tough times in in regards to covid so we wanted to celebrate um and at the same time be safe uh so that's why we had a presentation for council uh via zoom as well at our last council meeting but that it would be just great to uh make sure that we present it to our community uh the same presentation that was given to council as well too i'm very thankful um to our our smith group and hating group as well too um you know they took a lot of time within our community and there was key stakeholder meetings throughout our community before covet hit uh that where they were asking great questions and we had a planning session within council uh then it went to our directors our employees our community members we had a coffee talk that was just all about our new city hall campus uh then it went you know to our veterans to our senior center uh to our teams as well too so there was quite a bit of input on it but one thing was always been a priority is that we wanted to make it as cost effective as possible to our community members where it didn't look uh like a taj mahal as councilmember bonding said but it is definitely uh feels like it but definitely we didn't pay that much for it as well too we wanted to be good stewards of our taxpayer money and making sure that it fit the needs of our community and at the same time we were trying to use every part of the space and a multi-module faction and making sure that you know we can turn our our city council chambers into an open open conference room when it's not being used so we wanted to make sure that we were utilizing it and also the focus is about how could our community members whether they have a group or it was a group of kids that wanted to come and use a facility say off the library or at the senior center on off hours how could we help our community we know that the demand is great when it comes to meeting space and having places where they can perform so that was another concept that we wanted to make sure that we integrated as well too because ultimately this campus is uh our communities and we wanted to make sure that it shined bright on it so uh without further ado we have a a small just video to show you where exactly the the actual campus will be it's on the on the corner of 91st avenue and van buren on the south east corner so pilar if you can show that might be palaro nico so here it is right here this is uh going to be our future spot many of you recognize it when we have events in our community that's our additional parking space uh and soon within two years it'll be home of our new city hall complex which will hold our senior center our library and also our future aquatic center so very exciting times this is actually you know the site uh where we're at is where our city was founded um as well too so we wanted to pay homage to our community and our history as well too before we start with the smith group we wanted to do a quick countdown as well too so take it away pilar so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you so now that we know where it's going to be located we're going to take a little bit of a deep dive into what it's going to look like inside and outside and so with that i'll turn it over to john tran from smith group thank you very far let me share my screen if i may here okay can everyone see our screen thumbs up terrific uh actually i think chris ledworth that is going to start starts off here so mayor and council and top tolleson we appreciate another opportunity to present this wonderful project to us this is a this is a great milestone in the design implementation of the new city hall for tolleson um it's been hard earned by everybody on the team and as mayor you pointed out we received a lot of input from tolleson not only the the key staff members that have been there since day one but also the other groups communities organizations neighborhoods in the surrounding area because what's most important is that this this is not only just the new city hall but it's a new city hall for tulsa and we couldn't have done it without you so um this dedication is is somewhat of a thanks for all the hard work that you put into the project um and i hope you enjoy it thank you thank you chris once again i'm john tran i'm one of the designers at smith group uh we've been honored really truly it's been a real pleasure to work with with the entire team throughout this process the last 18 months we're super excited about sharing uh our pro our project your project with the rest of the community i know that the council had a preview so let's get into it um so you know here's here's aspiration i know we couldn't all be together but you know imagine one day when we've got our plaza we'll have our dedication we'll have our our holiday events in in the plaza at your new city hall right you're going to see where this is what we'd like to do is walk uh everyone through the plan you saw on the video that cool video taken uh by the drone there uh in fact i believe those were actual light laid out at the footprint of the building to scale and so what you saw on the drone video was the actual sort of outline of the building we're going to dig in a little deeper into uh into what that all means this is our site plan and so again let me orient you guys uh van buren is to the north to the top of us north 91st is to our west which is on the left of the drawing uh and so really the the building has has three major wings and three major departments um starting on the upper left that is your library and so uh the library will will have that entire ground floor it's got a double volume space we're gonna look at what some of these things look like three-dimensionally shortly uh the second component is the senior center that is to the right of of the library there they are accessible and are joined by a two double volume lobby which is right in the middle here and then to the south of us is the wing that houses the council chamber uh the department of the uh the building department finance is where one comes in pay your bills talk to the building department and then you can you can see the access to the site you've got several access to the site coming from the north off of van buren we've got two driveways uh two curb cuts coming off van buren we've got a nice drop off here if you're coming in to drop off your books there's a there's a book drop off here there's parking as you come around this is a this is a secondary entry for the seniors uh into into their area we're going to talk about that in detail in a moment this is really a major primary entry at the north this is an entry into the lobby inside the lobby there will be an elevator double volume space there'll be skylights lots of ample daylight in there as you come around then on the site which is accessible also from 91st ave much of the parkings down here would be nicely landscaped parking lot you park here you enter the building through here you walk by this big plaza that's the plaza we just shared the image of of of the holiday uh event there the the site is lush we've got great landscape program all the way around here you can sort of see the organic program of of landscape walking trails bio swells great landscape that feels lush though it is very appropriate to the desert desert landscaping but it feels very nice and shady and lush we've got a great outdoor reading room here for the kids as part of the library this is a secured but private area for the kids to have outdoor reading rooms and other events for them right outside of the of the library here uh again so here's the seniors um of note for the senior uh center are uh the mayor spoke about all the all the different kinds of meeting rooms and meeting spaces that we'll have you know i think that was a that was a key uh assignment for us is to find as many different sorts of spaces for the community to have events in so if this is a senior center there's a large lobby here where you can check in there's a lounge like area two large classrooms here with a dividable wall that opens up so you can make one larger classroom for for the senior use this is then a fitness center dedicated to the seniors this is housing department and and the senior part meter offices and lounge so and so space but the main the main room the main space in here is this multi-function room here it's a very very large room with a wall again that that divides it so it can excuse me split it into two spaces or have one large very large space to have all the events that that that that you know that you want to have in there for seniors as well as the rest of the of the campus that space is served by a very large kitchen in here so this is where food is made prepared and served this room then has an out as a series of doors that opens it up to the outdoors out into a covered outdoor porch so you have the flexibility of using this space inside and out on nice days like we have today again all this opens up into a great lawn great plaza that is large enough for us to have lots of different kinds of programming from book fairs to uh you know to holiday events you can imagine someone having their their wedding out there again so this is the site plan again we've got ample parking all around lots of access very secure very very sent back from the street safe right next we're going to look at the plan a little bit i already walked you through a little the plan down on the ground but let's let's continue to do that in a little bit more detail in the library we're going to have again just ample meeting space we're going to have a large multi meeting multi-purpose meeting room at the at the front of the library that's accessible for folks in the library as well as the general public out of the lobby this is a circulation desk where you check books in and out there's a bookstore a new bookstore dedicated to the library it's accessible from within the library as well as from the exterior for after hours large large adult collection reading room a dedicated area for teens lots of meeting rooms and little conference huddle spaces for folks that have some private reading room or some small uh some small meetings uh between a few folks the staff lounges back here with their workers back here we'll have a large computer lab accessible to the public a large computer work area and then this area down here with this little jelly bean shape that's a dedicated children's reading area within the children's reading area inside the jelly bean we'll have uh we'll have an area for toddlers you know it'd be it'll be for for a reading a play area within the children's area for the toddlers again access to restrooms and a kitchen back here to service multi-purpose these doors lead you out to that outdoor reading room for the children outdoor space here the lobby again seniors the two classrooms fitness multi-purpose spoken word about this large ample restrooms available for everyone in the building as well as available have access to the outdoor plaza for events where you might want to have restrooms uh the lobby links to the south again this is going to be a gallery dedicated to some of the artifacts that you have in your collection now to show off some of the history or some of the artwork that that is part of the collection that you have as a city it's a really great gallery space to to display all that wonderful art finance building department council meeting rooms the mayor's office conference rooms lots of apple code and then the big council chamber here accessible from out here openable out to the plaza so on nice days these doors open you can have overflow out there so this is a big a big pre-function space upstairs and so on the left here is uh is the upstairs plan superimposed on over the library so it's a two-level building with just the two-level area above the library and again upstairs a bunch of administrative uh offices the i.t uh area for for the for a city hall the break room for much of the employees uh human resources another training room up here for for staff and then more restrooms so that's your plan so it's a it's a nice three-wing plan accessible from all areas of of uh of all points of of the building this is your first glimpse of the building so so here we are we're standing on van buren looking back at the building we just spoke about the large reading room that's going to be a large floor to ceiling glass it's double volume uh the the entry of the building is here that double volume lobby and then here we have the seniors area we talked about some of those classrooms and the fitness center and some of the offices you know we took our inspiration from a lot of things uh you know uh not the least of which is sort of the the wonderful sort of uh profile of the mountains we have in the background the building has has a profile that that responds a little bit to that we also think about some of the history of of uh tolleson and took that as some design cues and really some inspiration for um for the building again here we are from above looking looking back down looking south now again library the teens area there's an outdoor lounge for employees up here all this area here is dedicated to to landscape and hardscape softens up the building and then you can sort of see the parking wrapped around and then the council chamber as we fly around the building then this is looking at the south this is the plaza this outdoor space these doors are coming out from the senior center these doors are coming out from the council chamber the council of chambers under here uh here we are standing at the corner van buren looking back towards the library again large expanse of glass wonderful daylight in there big reading room this is the teens reading area we've got a couple several areas um on the building uh that we're saving for potential for artwork such as as as murals and so and so forth that are available to to have on the building this is one of those areas you've got a rich art program in tolson along the street in the streetscape and some of some of the wonderful murals we have in the community well we'd like to continue to have to carry that that theme throughout our project again another view of the entry here's the entry of the building the seniors the library one of those potential areas for us to have artwork uh as shown there at the entry we're inside the building now and so here we are we're in the lobby we're looking south when you enter the building to your left it will be the senior center these are the doors we're gonna we're gonna show you all of these things in a little animation shortly so it'll be a clearer to you uh the seniors the senior center lobby over here uh straight ahead is where is uh the council chamber and the building department and finances where one pays one's bill and if you turn to your right that's the library this is that large reading or that large multi-function uh room that's available right here uh right at the library and the entry of the library is there inside the library again this is a large reading room inside the library this is that adult collection double volume space lots of glass coming in got this rail up here this is the youth area behind here uh here we are looking back i'm going to show you a video of all of this stuff again we're still in the library here here we are now then we are in the council chamber uh this is a large room dedicated to not just not just dedicated to council functions but again making all these spaces available to the public part of that is making the floor flat so that you can set up chairs and tables and have different kinds of vents in there again lots of great daylight they come into this space here's a view of the senior center multi-function room this is that dividable wall that we spoke about here this is this is the room in its open position large room serves by this kitchen again great access to the outdoors and daylight there now we're gonna we're gonna fly you around the building a little bit in an animation here we are flying around you'll see the form of the building there plaza in the foreground as we come around again this is the the front entry of the building next slide oops sorry about that next slide we're going to see this now we're going to enter the building we're going to run in the building really fast here the book store to your right we just walked through the bookstore here again senior center to your left there it is on cue awaiting lobby area for the seniors to our right then is the library entry so this is this is behind us is the entry this is the training room and there's the um there's the circulation the entry proper into the library whoops okay next one we're gonna walk into the library now as you enter the library circulation desk book pick up the youth area to our left you can see by the little kids there the reading room the large reading to our right this is a double volume space lots of great seating space community area this is the teens area behind us right here we are we're going to look back at the front of the library right and then and now we're on our way back out again right and our book store is right here okay oops now we're now we're in the children's area we're going to take a look at this this this little jelly bean shape that you saw in the plan earlier that's the that's the toddler's area they have a little private area in there within the children's reading area reading room all right here we are we're walking back out of the library that's the circulation desk the bookstore again to our left and then that conference room to our right all right now we're gonna walk through the senior center uh we're back out in the lobby now and then we're gonna walk through the senior center lobby here and then see what that large uh that large uh multi-purpose room looks like here we are the lounge for seniors a reception window they can check in your storage area for walkers now we're into the large multi-purpose room looking back at it we're going to walk outside to the lawn and then so this is this lawn that's going to be great because i think it's going to be a wonderful opportunity for us for you to have all sorts of programmed activity and events in there oops all right and then we're just going to take a look real quick at the council chamber walking through the lobby and looking at the council chamber or through the south lobby and then the council chamber here approaching the building from the south again another view of that great lawn walking through the door of the lobby and then one last animation um that would show you the inside of the of the counselor chamber here we are at that's that's the gallery now we're gonna walk through these doors here's an event inside the council chamber one evening okay and and that's it that's that's that's your city hall in a nutshell once again uh it's been a real honor for us to be able to work with the team on on this project it's a wonderful project we're very proud of it we hope that you're happy with it thank you john that was a great overview um and i don't know about you guys but these 3ds they make me a little dizzy as well too but they're pretty cool to see uh before we move on to um to hayden um i just want to say a special thank you to our council members that are on uh with us today uh they worked tremendously hard in making sure that we made our city hall campus a priority for our community uh for constituency for our employees as well too we have council member albert mendoza wave hi to us ah there he is we have a council member linda labourine oh there she is wearing pink good job we have council member claudine darivez oh she has a a princess wave there we go we have uh our newest council member uh council member jimmy davis he's going to be uh making sure that our kids uh are performing uh by concert and by plays out in that green area that you saw he already has a list going of of different activities and events that can happen there so we're very excited um of having jimmy davis on our council uh he brings a very fresh perspective um and definitely his passion for the arts is something that we definitely need in making sure they're giving us guidance and ideas so thank you councilmember davis and last but definitely not least our mayor elect juan rodriguez he will be officially sworn in as mayor at our next council meeting which will be on december 8th so if you would like to join us on december 8th uh about 6 00 p.m uh we're going to be swearing in our new council members that won uh reelection and then we're going to be throwing in our uh new mayor mayor-elect juan rodriguez so please if you can join us then um i've known juan since we were four years old uh he has been an awesome council member vice mayor his family is amazing as well too his wife is the school teacher here at ph gonzalez teaching kinder um and truly a reflection of what our families are here in the city of tolleson so we are going to be in amazing hands uh with our new mayor uh juan rodriguez and also with our outstanding council they are truly passionate uh i've had the honor of working with them for about four years and let me tell you they really want uh and do put community first um we are missing a couple council members today uh council member uh lupe bondin and council member john canaro but again thank you to all council members uh for making sure that this was a realization for our community uh next we'll head uh with hayden we have fritz that's going to be talking us through our construction well hi uh thank you mayor tovar and i want to thank uh mayor elect rodriguez and the members of the council and on behalf of hayden building corp i want to express the our gratitude for the opportunity to work with the smith group and all the great folks in the uh in the the staff and really the family at the city of tulsa and i've been i've been really really impressed with the quality of people their their commitment to the community um you know reyes and his team are really just amazing and you should all be very proud of them um we're working very diligently with the design team and with all the folks are going to occupy this building to make sure we build you a great structure that that we're good stewards of the the city's funds on the project and build the kind of building that you want with the functionality that you really need we look forward to working over the next several months to get the project designed and and make sure we hit the budget and get ready for construction just as quickly as we can and and i know that we'll look forward to occupying the building just as soon as as soon as we can get it finished and we'll be developing those those dates over the next couple of months um again i want to thank you on behalf of hayden building court for the opportunity and it's just been it's been a lot of fun even as difficult as it's been for the last six months eight months working remotely you know it's it's uh i just feel like i've become part of the family and i can't i look forward to when we can actually all get in a room together and and uh you know hug it out after having been remote for all these months so again thank you and i look forward to getting under construction thank you friends and uh we are anxiously awaiting as well too but know that uh we need to be safe during our covent times and with tullison leading the way i'm sure that we will be breaking ground and have this campus in no time and hopefully a blink of an eye if we've been waiting for many many years you know we will make sure that it's done right and we're definitely proud to have you on board and making sure that it's built right as well too thank you now we're going to move um to a couple of pictures but before that i i do want to mention and pay a special thank you to our trust coalition which is a non-profit here in the city of tolleson they graciously donated uh 20 000 to our library uh for a museum so you'll you heard a little bit about it uh in our actual design uh where we have a walkway uh with different areas that we can display a lot of the um artifacts that we have currently in our library but also in working towards new ones as well too so again thank you so much trust coalition for your twenty thousand 000 donation to our library this is going to go a long way in making sure that we're preserving our history and also showcasing it to our community members um and especially with our youth and making sure they know about our history and about the artifacts that we share so thank you very much for your generosity uh next i would like to also thank jbs for their support uh for the city of tolleson bookmobile so if we could put up the bookmobile picture this is super exciting um and it is right now it is in its uh infant stages of being all kind of decked out as far as our bookmobile uh so this was a 250 000 donation by jbs uh to purchase a bookmobile for the city of tolleson so right now it's as you see it uh we just received it and we have a little bit of work that we just did on it but um it will also also have a full max ac so when it drives around our city uh to into our neighborhoods uh we'll want to make sure everything is nice and cool when our community and kids and adults can check out books uh there's going to be mounted digital tv screens to display our library catalog we're going to have wi-fi capability on it as well too and we're also going to have an awning for outdoor out time story time as well too so it's going to be virtually a library on wheels that'll have everything possible for them to come into your neighborhood and to do all the activities that you can do in the library uh it will be a wheelchair lift accessible as well too because we want to make sure that we're accessible to all our community members it'll also have a very easy pass-through window for easy checkout a backup camera because this uh bookmobile looks really really big so we want to be safe when we're driving through the neighborhood so they'll have a backup camera and also they'll be able to have storage and um for our books and our supplies as well too so it's uh gonna need a little bit more tlc uh and that will be coming along soon but we are super excited for that to hit our streets uh hopefully around springtime uh and it'll be going to our community and hopefully providing those resources for all of our community members with just a couple of feet of their house as well too so very very exciting about that um also if we can put up the aquatic center and our check presentation uh we did receive a one million dollar donation from jbs uh yes you heard it right one million dollars uh we were i think we're still i i still get chills and i would i woke up the next day and after the check presentation i thought did we really get a million dollars um and once i was given the real check i handed it over to our city manager right away you can see this is the big uh fake check uh but it was great to take a picture uh together with jbs uh we had jerry brown uh here and it was through their hometown program uh where they have uh their their plants throughout the nation and it was their commitment to bring back uh investment into the community where they've been so we were awarded not only the bookmobile but also the one million dollar donation to go to our future aquatic center and that is just amazing um and i want to say if i don't know if jerry brown is on the line or if we have someone from jbs and if they would like to say a few words um about the program pilar crystal can you help me and see if i'm checking to see if there are not i don't see them but if anybody from jbs is on feel free to unmute yourself again yeah it was a just an amazing collaboration and want to pay special thanks to all of our directors who played a role um in developing a wish list in regards to uh what we could potentially use uh the one million dollars for but uh jbs went through the entire process we presented to them a very nice report uh in regards to what our needs were in our community um and many of you know that you know you probably learned to swim at the at the tolleson pool there at the high school and uh it definitely outlived its life expectancy um i know i learned how to swim there i took my kids to learn how to swim there and they competed as well too uh all for about a quarter a day uh when we when i used to go swimming uh but so when the high school notified us and let us know that they were going to be using that portion to close it and build a building on it for their school we wanted to make sure that we continued that tradition here in the city of tolleson of having that swimming pool to be available for our community members so this one is not going to be just a normal swimming pool that was there at the high school but it's going to be more of an aquatic center will be open for competitions open for our community members and open as well too for our seniors and hopefully therapeutic uh swimming and not only swimming lessons but you name it uh we're very very excited to be developing that uh very soon and a special thank you to our constituents that pass the bond that is allowing us to move forward in building this aquatic center but the 1 million dollars from jbs is definitely very very helpful because as you know when you're planning different things such as city hall or aquatic center there are things that don't make the cut list in regards to the budget uh but with the million dollars it'll get us there much sooner in regards to building the aquatic center it's something i feel that it will be a very much a highlight in the west valley uh because there is no other aquatic center that will be here in uh the west valley as well too so looking forward to that uh in developing that aquatic center which will actually be on the same site that we just showed you um as well too it'll be near the back end um as well too so a one-stop shop you can check out books and go swimming at the same same day just minutes away with that i don't think we had jerry brown or anyone from jbs on the line but um wanted to make sure that um for those on the call today uh we will be doing a special uh keepsake for you um and that's going to be available at our library our front um parking lot of our city hall at 95 55 west van buren so that will be begin on december 8th uh you'll be able to go um to the library curbside and pick up your special keepsake uh for our dedication that this happened today so it's a special surprise uh and for council members or or staff that are on our employees don't worry yours will be delivered to you uh to your office as well to you or to your home i should say with our council members so i want to thank everyone for being on this evening and it was a very very special event and dedicating this virtually uh and we hope that you continue to follow through with uh different updates that we'll have that mayor rodriguez i'll have to make sure that you're informed every step of the way in regards to the building of our new city hall complex so thank you again everyone have a great evening take care and stay safe thank you