New town hall marks next chapter of growth for Wallace

WALLACE — The town of Wallace moved its offices into the new town hall at 120 Municipal Drive on Jan. 20, celebrating the event with a ribbon cutting. The building is located behind the shopping center that houses the N.C. DMV License Plate Agency off of U.S. Highway 117.

After cutting the ribbon, Mayor Jason Wells told the crowd the new town hall was just part of a series of changes in the town.

“This is part of a much bigger project,” Wells said. “We’ve got the fire department going up and when everybody is cleared out of the old town hall, we’ve got to find some money to make PD’s (police department) dreams come true.”

The old town hall will be renovated to become the Wallace Police Department headquarters.

Wells added the extra space is needed in the rapidly-growing community.

“As you grow as a town and a community, we’ve got to grow as well and make sure we have space to operate.”

In an interview with Duplin Journal after the ribbon cutting ceremony, Wallace Town Manager Rob Taylor echoed the mayor’s remarks about needing space to operate the town.

“We were pretty cramped where we were with the staff that we have,” Taylor said. “This gives everyone more elbow room to get their jobs done. Now, everyone’s in one place. Before, we were split on both sides of the hall with utility on one side, myself and town clerk on the other side. Planning is all in one building now, instead of having to send people over to an auxiliary building.”

How the building that is now the new town hall came to fill the new role is an interesting journey.

“Years ago, this building was a medical building. It was built in coordination with Duplin’s General (hospital),” Taylor said. “Over time, they didn’t need it anymore, so the town was actually leasing this building from Vidant at the time as the parks and rec offices. The land was donated to the town, and we added the land to Clement Park.”

When news got out about the town’s desire to possibly move town hall to the building, ECU Health, which eventually acquired Duplin General Hospital’s assets, donated the building to the town.

“We still spent a lot of money renovating it, but at least the building was free,” Taylor said.