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The pile of uprooted seating blocked Mayor Joe Cobb’s parking spot. About 12 hours earlier, the squeaky seats hosted an audience inside the city council chambers on Monday night.

The time-worn city council chambers are undergoing renovations. It will be a new look in the room come the Aug. 4 city council meeting, Cobb said.

“We will have a very reconfigured space in here,� Cobb said. “Which we hope in most every way will be more accessible to everyone who is able to come and be a part of our meetings.�

The project includes new paint, carpet, seating and IT equipment, according to a city spokesperson. Asbestos abatement is part of the $77,878.81 project, with an additional 20% contingency budgeted.

The meeting room was last updated about 14 years ago, the spokesperson, Adam Fajardo, said.

Former Â鶹´«Ã½¹ÙÍø employees who covered city hall in the early 2000s said hardly any of the room’s details have changed during the decades since, and the décor was dated even then.

It’s not the only transition for city council operations heading into August. Future meetings will now be livestreamed and archived on YouTube, rather than Facebook.

The change is occurring because Facebook has altered its policies so that live videos are no longer retained past 30 days, said councilman Phazhon Nash, who proposed the switch.

Facebook also requires people to sign in, whereas people only need an internet connection to watch livestreams on YouTube, he said.

“This is one way we can help be a little bit more engaged with our citizens,� Nash said. “I think this is a better product for us to use for our board meetings.�