Madison Hall issue discussed thoroughly

It’s clear that some of the residents who attended Madison Village Council meetings on May 6 and 20 turned out primarily to ask questions about a proposal that would move Village Hall from downtown to a location just north of the Interstate 90/Route 528 interchange.

And those residents came away with answers to many of their questions.

Maybe not answers that they wanted to hear, but responses that would explain why Village Council eventually ended up passing legislation that launches a multi-step process to purchase the Lakeland East building.

Council, at its May 20 meeting, voted 3-2 to approve an ordinance that authorizes Mayor Sam Britton to execute a contract to buy the building, located at 201 Water Tower Drive, for $1,025,000.

That legislation also states that Madison Village is seeking to relocate its administrative and police operations to a new facility “due to the age and functional obsolescence” of the current Village Hall at 126 W. Main St.

Over the course of two meetings, about 10 residents addressed council on the relocation of Village Hall.

One of the most common questions asked was: Why would the village consider buying Lakeland East over two other buildings located in the community’s downtown?

We believe that village leaders answered that question clearly and completely.

Councilman Ken Takacs said from a financial standpoint, Lakeland East is the most economical choice for a new Village Hall.

“It’s a masonry building,” he said. “It needs the least amount of (renovation), and as you heard (at the May 6 meeting), remodeling can get astronomical when you have to pay prevailing wage. It’s always been a consideration we had talked about. I still think it’s the best option of the three.”

Council also considered two other sites for a Village Hall: Fire Station 1 at 33 N. Lake St.

... we commend village leaders for engaging in a thorough and informative discussion on the Village Hall relocation issue over the course of two meetings.

and the former Collins Bi-Rite Supermarket at 46 N. Lake St.

Preparing Fire Station 1 to serve as the new home base for village government and police would have involved a combination of remodeling, demolition and new construction.

In an attempt to lower the cost of the project, it was decided that the village, which owns the building, would act as general contractor for a design-build project.

This brought the estimated project cost down to about $1.37 million, village Administrator Dwayne Bailey explained at the May 6 council meeting.

Transforming the Collins building into a municipal center with a Police Department and council chambers, and constructing a garage for police cars behind the former store, would cost about $942,000.

However, Bailey said May 6 that a major drawback on the Collins and Fire Station 1 projects is the extent of remodeling work where prevailing wage laws would apply.

Prevailing wage is the required pay to skilled trades employees on public improvement construction projects, according to state laws.

“One of the biggest problems with public works projects like that is when you get over $80,000 on remodeling, everything has to be at prevailing wage,” Bailey said. “That adds 40 percent to every man hour of labor that goes into that.”

Takacs also said that the Collins building and former Fire Station 1 both could be repurposed into commercial businesses that would pay taxes and employ people, and are each located in downtown Madison.

Bailey had noted that the Realtor for Lakeland East expressed concerns about that structure being on the market for quite a while, since “it was a very specific type of building and very few things would fit in there.”

In conclusion, we commend village leaders for engaging in a thorough and informative discussion on the Village Hall relocation issue over the course of two meetings.

Although not all residents went away happy after the ordinance regarding Lakeland East was approved, they at least know the considerations that went into making the decision.