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Killeen City Hall plans to move, forcing other businesses to do the same

Posted at 10:41 PM, Nov 17, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-18 11:04:33-05

The city of Killeen plans to move out of the city hall and into the Arts and Activity Center downtown, and this will force other businesses to move as well. 

In the next few months, six businesses that occupy the Arts and Activities Center will be forced to change locations. However, the city is working with those organizations to make their transition as smooth as possible.

Maureen Jouett is the Executive Director for a company in the Arts and Activities Center that helps local veterans. She is just one of the six companies that wasn't thrilled about being forced to move.

“You know there are expenses with vacating and so, those are extra expenses we didn’t budget for. We don’t blame the city, I understand the circumstance its just unfortunate that it’s happening,” Jouett said.

The Killeen city hall currently occupies an old high school. It has been at the location for the past decade. Now the building is falling apart, and city workers have to change locations for the safety of the employees.

Mayor Jose Segarra said the city does not want to jeopardize the great work these organizations bring to the community, so they're working to assist wherever they can.

“We got some great organizations in there and they’re doing a lot of great things for our community. We want to make sure they continue doing that so anything that we can try to do to help them, we want to, we’re all for it,” Mayor Segarra said.

The city is currently working to help find locations for those businesses to go. The only businesses that won’t be evacuated in the Arts and Activity Center are the Head Start and the Free Clinic.

Richard Milburn Academy Charter School is another organization that will be forced to leave, but the director says they're optimistic about how the next location will add to their legacy.

“The city of Killeen has been great partners for youth in the community. While the timing is unfortunate as it would be for any school, we appreciate the process that the city of Killeen has given us. By basically giving us nine months to transition out of our current campus and into another facility,” Dr. Jesse Riojas said.

For a list of the businesses that currently occupy the Arts and Activity Center in Killeen click here

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