Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Winsted council hears costs for old city hall options



Winsted City Council heard about options for the future
of the old city hall Tuesday at its regular meeting.

The council was presented with information by Bob Russek
from BRA&A, who outlined four scenarios for the historic building. He
said the costs for each scenario were based on average construction costs,
and this should be taken into consideration in the council’s determinations.

The first scenario was to remodel the current location
into just a library. Of that, Russek noted that the building had some “serious
structural problems” that would have to be addressed. This included
not just the roof truss system, but the load capacity of the floors.

As such, the design for the library would have a top floor
that was just a perimeter, not a whole floor, reserved for a reading area
and light displays. The main floor would be contiguous space and would house
the book stacks.

Library stacks require floors capable of withstanding 100
pounds per square feet. Currently, the building’s floors only allows for
40. This plan would minimize the amount of floor re-enforcement that would
be needed for a library.

For the roof, Russek suggested replacing it with a standard
bar joint roof. The current truss system he described as “not a great
way to build a roof.”

He noted that the roof is out of sight, so the change should
not depreciate the building’s aesthetic value. He added the roof could be
made to look as it had the truss system to maintain the building’s history
appearance cheaply.

With all the renovations, cost was estimated to be $80
per square foot for the work. In total, the estimated cost was about $700,000.

The second plan involved creating an addition to the building
for city offices and a police station. In this plan, city offices would
be on the main floor, with council chambers above, and police below. Between
the addition and the original building, one elevator would be placed for
each section to share.

This plan was expected to cost about $1.1 million dollars.

The third and fourth scenarios involve demolishing the
old building. This would cost about $30,000.

Then, the city would have the option to build a new library
and city hall. In general, a new library would be more expensive than a
city hall. The library would cost about $100 per square feet while the city
hall would cost $87 per square foot, he said.

Also, a new library alone would be expected to be less
expensive since it would require less lobby space. The old city hall building
would require space for three floors of lobby since the layout of the floor
would have to be duplicated on all three levels. A new library could be
built on just one floor, only needing one floor of lobby space.

Combining the two new buildings would be more expensive
than renovation, but only by about $50,000. While renovation is cheaper,
Russek said, “The downside of that is you still have a 100-year-old
building.”

In general, he added that those numbers could be “attacked”
once the council chooses a direction to attempt to minimize costs. The project
could also be done in pieces.

For instance, the council could renovate one floor of the
old city hall, move in the library, and leave a space for an elevator to
satisfy a requirement for a $150,000 state grant.

Some concern was expressed for the maintenance of the soft
brick building, as it would require regular tuck pointing.

Also, Council Member Jeff Albers noted that he received
calls from the public indicating that a $700,000 price tag was too much
for remodeling a building.

The council approved amending the employee ordinance to
allow up to 480 hours of sick time banking for employees, who could cash
out those hours to pay for health insurance to cover the gap in retirement
to age 65.

For long term employees, they would follow the city’s previous
policy of banking up to 960 hours to be cashed out for health insurance
coverage, as well.

City Administrator Aaron Reeves presented figures indicating
how area businesses handled their sick time policies. In terms of banking,
it was determined that the new decision fell into the average of those figures.

Initially, Council Member Tom Wiemiller suggested leaving
the policy as is, to be proposed later nearer to budget discussions.

However, Reeves said that some employees might be planning
on hearing about the policy soon, wondering how many hours they could bank.

In general, consensus seemed to be to cover employees’
needs from an injury until the city’s short term disability program kicks
in. Some members felt the current program allowed employees to bank too
many hours, however.

Said Council Member Gary Lenz, “If we’re going to
let people bank all this time, let’s cut back on our disability insurance.”

Lenz also said he felt the banking should only cover an
employee until disability insurance benefits would kick in.

However, those benefits would amount to about $800 per
month for some employees. Reeves said, “That’s enough to bury some
people.”

Also, some council members preferred allotting cashouts
for banked sick days only if they were put to medical use.

Said Albers, “Sick days are nice, but I don’t think
we owe them to anybody.”

While the council determined its ultimate course of action
on the subject, ordinance documents will have to be drafted to finalize
a vote on the matter.

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