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Renovation near complete on former 'domino hall'
The square orange brick building at Beaty and East Market streets once served as the early city of Athens electric department. Then, a few decades back, elderly gentlemen gathered there for heated matches of dominoes.
In recent years the building has housed grounds keeping equipment. But now, this former ugly duckling has bloomed into a graceful swan at the hands of Sanitation Department Director Earl Glaze and his work crew.
Exposed bricks and gleaming oak surfaces give a trendy feel to the offices and meeting space that has been created within.
It’s rare that the city of Athens has three construction projects going concurrently. As well as the “domino hall,” the city recently completed a new two-bay fire station to serve Black’s Landing Subdivision on the banks of the Tennessee River.
The City Council voted last week to name the new station, which was completed as a joint project with Clements Volunteer Fire Department, “Oak Grove Station,” in honor of Oak Grove CME Church, which donated the property off Cowford Road.
Another project going up off Martin Luther King Drive is the new Athens Fire Station No. 3 behind Steelcase. It will replace the station on Lucas Ferry Road that is located in the bottom of a water tower. Workmen have been taking advantage of recent sunny days to get the framework up for the new station that will be a smaller and less elaborate version of Fire Station No. 2, which opened in Athens-Limestone Medical Village last year.
Chamber interest
Since the city began renovating the old electric department/domino hall, it has been talked of as a possible location for the Greater Limestone County Chamber of Commerce Tourism office.
City Council President Ronnie Marks said Friday he would try to have a resolution ready to present to the council at its Nov. 23 meeting concerning a lease agreement between the city and the chamber.
“I have to work out the details,” said Marks. “I haven’t presented it to the council. The building is absolutely beautiful. If all works out, it could become the Tourism office. The back meeting room could be used by non-profit groups.”
Marks said, although Glaze has not presented final bills for materials, it has probably cost the city from $70,000 to $75,000 to renovate the building. Glaze and his crew renovated the old College Inn buildings, one of which is used as a museum and the other as the office of Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful, which is charged a nominal fee.
“There has been some discussion that we should be able to recoup some of the costs on these buildings and not keep renovating without a revenue stream,” said Marks. “Probably the way to do this is a contractual agreement dealing with rental space.”
Meanwhile, Chamber President Hugh Ball and Tourism Director Jeannette Dunnavant say they can’t announce plans to move the Tourism office to the building until there is a lease agreement with the city.
Dunnavant said her goal is to establish a museum and gift shop in the structure along with her office if the chamber signs a lease with the city.
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