Town Hall, the cornerstone of our local government operations, is renovated and stands proudly to serve our community for decades to come.
Located at 20 Bridge St. in Bluffton’s Historic District, Town Hall has been fully renovated, given more than 4,500 square feet of added space, and is now open to serve our community.
If you haven’t already, please take 10 minutes and come in for a quick tour. In function and aesthetics, I don’t think you can find a better-looking municipal building.
On behalf of Town Council, I am very proud these renovations were made and are fully paid off without any additional costs to Bluffton’s taxpayers. The renovations were funded through the Town’s General Fund’s Fund Balance.
I am also proud of Town Manager Marc Orlando’s and Project Manager Brian Osborne’s leadership throughout this process.
Orlando had the foresight to plan for ample work space, a growing staff and multiple meeting rooms to serve our community.
Osborne’s daily dedication to details has provided Bluffton with an extremely functional building with beautiful Lowcountry design elements.
I also want to thank all the residents, business owners and staff members for their flexibility as town operations were spread out between different locations during the year-long renovations.
These renovations will allow our engineering staff to join their colleagues at Town Hall and move out of the Bluffton Police substation on May River Road. Having the majority of Town staff members in one location will facilitate more collaboration and a more streamlined work system.
The highlights of Town Hall’s renovation project include the addition of more than 4,500 square feet to the original building. This addition, with about 145 seats, will be the formal meeting space for Town Council, municipal court and other public meetings and gatherings. This portion of the building also has a dedicated public entrance.
Besides a beautiful facelift to the exterior building, the building has a new, efficient heating and cooling system, improved working environment for Town Council and staff with efficient, consolidated working stations with abundant natural light and common meeting areas.
In addition, an upgraded information technology (IT) infrastructure has been installed which will support Gigabit internet access and future technological advances.
Improvements were also added to the building’s parking areas.
Beyond the cost-savings, it was important to renovate this building versus build a new one because the business of the Town needs to remain in the heart of Bluffton. In addition, Town Hall has lived many lives and Town leaders wanted the legacy of this building to continue.
Throughout the years, the building where Town Hall resides was a school, a daycare, a theatre, a gathering place and, of course, Town Hall. These renovations have refreshed and renewed this building and it stands ready for more decades of service to Bluffton.
Lisa Sulka is the mayor of the Town of Bluffton.
