A village building research committee, appointed by Mayor Betty Welsh, is recommending that the village build a new police/municipal building rather than use existing village-owned facilities.

It also is recommending that the village replace its badly deteriorated maintenance department building with a new one. Cost comparisons were the key basis in these recommendations. Estimates to convert the East Washington Street building into a police station are a minimum of $530,000. Estimates to renovate the downtown city building range between $1.5 and $2 million. Cost just to rewire the North Water Street building run from $250,000 up.

In comparison, cost to build a new, 12,500 square foot police department/municipal office building is about $1.3 million, significantly less than the above cost figures.

"We have developed a preliminary design for such a building on our recently acquired Wally Road property, but it could be easily adapted to another site," Mayor Betty Welsh, who chaired the committee, said. Serving on the committee with her were Mayor's Secretary-Income Tax Administrator Elaine Van Horn; Clerk-Treasurer Sandy Lavengood; Maintenance Superintendent Roy Wilson; Police Chief Jim Coey and private citizen/volunteers Heino Thiemens and Kim Lindsey.

"We arrived at the consensus that overall, it would be less expensive to build a police/muni facility on Wally Road and a Maintenance Building at the current site," Welsh said. "The village owns both properties, eliminating additional property costs."

The committee also recommended:
--Selling the East Washington Street building for whatever price it will bring.
--Not proceeding with rewiring of the downtown building because of the high cost. The fact that the building will be occupies when the wiring was proposed to be done has driven the cost of the project, Welsh said, "through the roof. If we continue to piece-meal the downtown building, we will pay for engineering costs repeatedly for each project in the building. Wiring should be included in the total renovation of the building."
--Turning the renovation of the downtown building over to a non-profit group once the village vacates it. "Then volunteers can organize work crews and raise money for the project. The village cannot afford to continue to pour money into the building year after year," the mayor said.

Welsh emphasized "the condition of our existing buildings that have staff working in them day after day, we believe, would not pass safety inspections. This is based on the condition of the buildings (electrical wiring, leaking roof, and general overall poor condition). Safety shortcomings have been noted and can be documented through minutes of our safety committee meetings for several years."

Welsh also recommended that members of village council tour all of the existing village buildings before making a final decision on building direction.

Welsh also urged council to take quick action on the maintenance building facility.

"It is the least costly of our building challenges, and for safety reasons, is our most pressing need," Welsh explained. "The department could continue working in the old facility until work on the new building is complete. I would also recommend repairing the existing building when the new one is completed, particularly its badly leaking roof."