The City of Cortez is under contract to purchase the 25,000-square-foot, $2.995 million Journal building from the Ballantine family to house City Hall operations.

City Manager Shane Hale said the need for a larger, more publicly accessible City Hall was identified in previous assessments. The city will fund the purchase internally, Hale said. Overages from oil and gas severance taxes over the past few years have been earmarked for City Hall in a restricted reserve fund, and after taxes from this year come in, the fund should be $1 million. The remainder of the capital needed for the purchase will come from the general fund.

“As our 2014 audit indicated, we have solid cash reserves, and started out this year at 50 percent fund balance,” he said.

Renovating the existing City Hall was considered, but the building’s lack of adequate parking for staff and constituents remained a hindrance.

Hale also cited the building’s square footage, proximity to city agencies like the Cortez Recreation Center and the Cortez Police Department. The city has had its eye on the building since last winter.

“The building meets our size requirement almost to the foot. It’s a newer, well-designed building that can be easily retrofitted,” said Hale. “Council and staff has always wanted City Hall to be accessible to the public, and this building will allow us to accomplish that.”

Hale said council will decide plans for the City Hall on Main Street.

The Journal building was built by Southwest Contracting in 2001. The Journal moved from its Main Street location to the new building in 2002.

The Journal building was constructed to be occupied for many decades, said Ballantine CEO Richard Ballantine, but economics of the news business made printing at the Farmington Daily-Times much more cost effective. Cortez-based printing of The Journal and the Durango Herald ended in fall 2014 when the papers began to be printed in Farmington.

“The Ballantine family built the Journal building with the intent of occupying it for many decades,” said Ballantine. “We have been very pleased with the Journal building, because it served the needs of the paper very well, and we are glad to see it is now going into the city’s hands.”

The Cortez City Council voted during a Sept. 22 executive session to put in an offer of $2.995 million, which the Ballantine family accepted last week. Both parties expect the deal to close in mid-December.

The Journal will remain at its 123 N. Roger Smith Ave. location through 2015 and will operate business-as-usual, management says.

“The city and people of Cortez are getting a great building in a great area, with neighbors like Parque de Vida, the Cortez Recreation Center and the Cortez Public Library,” said Trent Stephens, the Journal’s managing editor.

“We’ll miss it, but we look forward to a little house-hunting of our own,” he said. “We’d love to be back on the revitalized Main Street, our historical home, and from what we hear, the food and coffee there is hard to beat.”