A big issue in Franklin’s mayoral race this fall is what to do about town hall.

Mayor Joe Collins is facing competition from one of the alderman, Verlin Curtis, who is upset about the way Collins is handling the issue.

Early this year, the town spent $1.6 million on a 12.7-acre site about half a mile outside downtown with the intention of building a new town hall, police station, fire station and maintenance facility.

The six aldermen voted unanimously to buy the site for that purpose and Collins, while he only votes in case of a tie, agreed as well. But now Collins has had second thoughts. Collins said the leading philosophy in smart growth is to keep civic functions downtown, and he wants to study the issue.

But Curtis said the vote was unanimous and Collins has no authority to be holding it up.

“The purpose of buying that was to move town hall there,” Curtis said. “I believe he could have worked closer with the board. There have been some decisions made without involving the board.”

Curtis wants the board to have a work session on the issue, but he said Collins is blocking the board from discussing it.

“My goal is to get everybody together in one complex,” Curtis said. “It costs less to consolidate. I’m looking 30 to 50 years down the road.”

But Collins wants to relocate town hall to an existing downtown building already owned by the town, a building built about 10 years ago by former Mayor Ed Henson as a museum for the Scottish Tartan organization. But the Scottish Tartans never moved into it. So the police department moved into it, but they don’t take up the whole thing.

“We’ve had four planners talk with us recently and all four have strongly suggested that town hall remain downtown. It would be better to have some committees including townspeople and professionals to really study the issue,” Collins said. “A real difference between me and my opponent is I am open for new ideas.”

Collins said the other tract could be sold. Developers could pitch their plans and the town could choose one that would provide the best economic anchor for that part of town.

— By Becky Johnson