VALDOSTA – The mayor wants more space and safer space for the city.

Mayor John Gayle announced the creation of a facilities study committee at a recent Valdosta City Council meeting that will look into expanding city facilities and security.

Gayle said the City of Valdosta is growing, and with that growth, it is necessary for the city to look for new buildings to house staff and City Council members. 

Currently, council members have no official offices, but the mayor sees an opportunity in the old Bank of America building at the corner of Patterson Street and Hill Avenue.

“We’re kind of on top of each other here in city hall. We have some space issues,” Gayle said. “Everything could be housed in (the old Bank of America) building with the exception of a few small departments.”

Expanding into new spaces would be only one of the committee’s responsibilities, he said. It will also look into security at existing facilities such as city hall and the city annex on Lee Street.

The mayor said the committee will be responsible for submitting a report to him and City Council by the end of the year with its recommendations to increase facility safety.

“Once they make their report, we’ll look at it to determine whether it is affordable or whether we could handle the remodeling,” Gayle said.

There has been recent incidents around city hall and the annex that make extra security a priority for the mayor and council, the mayor said, adding employees have been accosted outside city buildings.

He said there was a theft in the city human resources office while staff was at a meeting and a female employee had someone try to steal her purse outside the city annex building.

“We used to not have to worry about these types of things but you see it happening all across the country,” Gayle said. “You never know when it could happen here. We have been very fortunate that we have had no real threats to our well-being and security but we’ve had enough to realize that we can’t keep overlooking this.”