Sugar Hill shows off new City Hall

SUGAR HILL - City officials in Gwinnett County's Sugar Hill cut the ribbon and dedicated their brand new $11-million city hall Sunday afternoon.

The city hall is patterned after classic turn of the century designs of public buildings around the state and in the area according to Mayor Gary Pirkle.
Pirkle said City Hall is the springboard for downtown commercial growth, paid for by saved municipal and special purpose local option sales tax revenues.

That growth has taken Sugar Hill from a 2,500 population in 1974 to 18,520, the fourth largest city in Gwinnett County. Forbes Magazine has listed the town as the fastest growing in Gwinnett and the 40th fastest in the country, largely due to Gwinnett's fast paced residential growth.

"We wanted to make sure that when we built ours we had it completely paid for from the day it opened," Mayor Pirkle said. "Between the money we were able to save and put aside for it and then SPLOST afterwards, the building is completely paid for."

Ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremonies began as City Manager Bob Hail, who sheparded the city hall project, hoisted the U.S. Flag, followed by state and city flag raisings by Boy and Girl Scouts.

Once the ribbon was cut, Sugar Hill citizens poured inside to view what their SPLOST and city dollars had purchased as they snacked on treats the city offered, and picked up souvenir miniature flags, commemorative coins and coffee cups.

Barbara Dudley grew up in Sugar Hill, moved away, returned in the 1980's, and has watched the town grow for the past 20 years. She proudly displayed her coins and coffee cup as she said the new city hall was beautiful.

"It's a great improvement over the one we had and I think it's going to do the city a lot of good,' she said. "It's going to serve a great purpose in serving our people."

Mayor Pro Tem Curtis Northrup recalled the new building started with a crayon drawing when Mayor and Council first talked about the design.

"We had pictures from other city halls, churches and municipal buildings and we liked portions of each of them," Northrup said. "We had a piece of paper and everybody drew a little bit of what it was. The architects took that and professionalized it and changed it to what it would really look like."

Northrup said a citizen's survey revealed a desire to have a downtown where they could go for recreation, shopping and dining, with City Hall as the center piece. Mayor Pirkle told his ribbon cutting and dedication audience he and City Council wanted to create an iconic building that would last 50 years, maybe much longer, as a long term investment for downtown.