The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Library being considered for village offices
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: March 13, 2008
The list of options for new village offices grew by one this week when officials heard from Dan Redstone of Redstone Architects during a Dexter Village Council work session Monday.
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The firm was asked to draw up a floor plan for potential new office space based on the square footage and dimensions of the Dexter District Library at 8040 Fourth St.
No price has been firmed up for the building nor has an offer been extended, according to Library Director Paul McCann.
"Right now the library is exploring how it is going to sell the current building," McCann said.
"We received a letter of interest (Village President) from Shawn Keough on Feb. 27."
He reiterated that the library would be looking for the highest possible bid to "maximize" through the sale.
"We have to be responsible to our taxpayers and if the village comes in with the best offer, that would be great," McCann said.
In order to fit the village's list of features and spaces into the 4,312 square foot building, Redstone had to make several adjustments and omissions.
Based on interviews with staff, it was determined that the village offices should contain 5,000 square feet of space, including offices for the village manager, assistant village manager, the finance director and the community development director.
It also provided room for assessing, future office space, workstations and other general office features.
To fit in the allotted space, the items dropped from the plan were the assistant village manager's office, space for future offices, a conference room, break room and a council storage room.
In addition, the seating capacity in the proposed council chambers was reduced from 50 to 40.
One of the issues that cropped up was price, based on estimated renovations, including the demolition of existing interior walls, new restroom, new mechanical and electrical systems and a list of other general refurbishments including painting and drywall.
The low estimate to bring the building to a point where the village could move into a space that is fully up to code would be $65 per square foot or $281,645 on the low end, and $85 or $368,305 on the high end.
Those figures do not include the cost of purchasing the building outright, only bringing it up to code and specifications.
"When this building was built in 1996 it was in code, but new codes are in effect," Redstone told the council.
The Fourth Street building has been the home of the library since 1996 and was the former adjunct educational building for Dexter United Methodist Church.
Council Trustee Joe Semifero questioned the investment in the library building.
"If it's going to be (this much), we may as well look at something new," Semifero said. "We'll be buying somebody else's problems.
"If the difference is 50 years here versus 50 years there for $250,000, there's no question."
The other issue is location. Some on the council don't consider the library as existing in the downtown area, and others do.
"I'm not here to judge one space versus another," Redstone said. "Where do you want your building to be ... where do you want to invest your dollars?"
Village President Shawn Keough said he would prefer the village offices to be closer to Main Street.
"In fairness, what's driving this now is our knowledge of the fact that the library has entertained an offer," he said.
Village Council Trustee Paul Cousins called for the council to define what it considers the boundaries of the downtown area for the purposes of choosing where to locate new office space.
"I would like it to be downtown as well, if we can define downtown," he said. "I've tried to ask people the past four or five days, this question, 'Do you consider the present library downtown?' And I get about 70 percent saying 'yes it is' and 30 percent saying 'no.'"
The final item on Monday's meeting agenda was discussion on the village's definition of being downtown.
"If you're in one minute's walking distance of Broad and Main, you're in the downtown," Cousins concluded. "I'm not willing to compromise by going into the Schultz building and spending close to $1 million when we can get into the library building for half that.
"I'm not in favor of paying more to be 'downtown.'"
Cousins added that he would be open to alternatives outside of the two already on the table, when they become apparent.
He thought Redstone's plan involved too much remodeling and removal of existing walls and building infrastructure.
Trustee Jim Carson held a different view.
"I believe that the downtown area includes the central business district and village commercial," he said, pointing out that the library building is not within that boundary.
"If you take our zoning map and you take the DDA area, the areas that are CBD and village commercial are what I would consider the downtown.
"That is the area that the village should locate its village hall in. We need to contribute to the success of the downtown."
Carson provided copies of an article stating that a key component of a successful downtown was municipal buildings being located in the downtown at the meeting.
"Successful town centers include libraries, post offices, government offices and public safety offices," he said.
"As bad as we need new office facilities, I would rather we keep the facilities that we have now downtown than move out of the downtown business area."
Cousins contended that, "very few people go to the village hall on a regular basis and probably half don't know where the village hall is," calling into question the benefit of a downtown location.
Village officials have to make a decision quickly, as the deadline for using at least 90 percent of the bond money is coming in October.
The $2.8 million bond was awarded October 2006; $500,000 was allocated for new office space. The rest has been set aside or used for other projects.
Not using most of the bond money by the deadline could hurt the village's bond rating, according to Village Manager Donna Dettling.
"We have around $373,000 that we still have in bond proceeds that we have to expend by October," Dettling said.
The library building presents an alternative for some members of the council who were opposed to the village offices being moved to the proposed Mill Creek Terrace building, which will be a 27,000-square-foot, three-story office building in the downtown's central business district on Jeffords Street.
"It took us two months to move those apart," Cousins said in regard to the sale of village property to Mill Creek Terrace developer Schulz Development and a proposal to bring the village offices into that building.
The village on Monday sold the parcels —a parking lot and part of an alley off Jeffords Street - for $177,000.
The proposed office space rate originally came to $120 per square foot or $396,000 for 3,300 square feet; or $130 per square foot or $650,000 for 5,000 square feet, depending on whether village officials want office space only or council chambers as well.
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