The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Village makes offer for library building
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: April 24, 2008
Dexter Village has made a formal offer to Dexter Area Library officials for the purchase of the existing library building.
Advertisement
The building at 8040 Fourth St. will remain the library's home until its new building on Alpine Street is finished this fall.
According to village officials, a letter with the $435,000 offer was sent out to library officials Tuesday.
Last week the council discussed the matter prior to a 4-3 vote in favor of making the offer, with Village President Shawn Keough, and trustees Jim Carson and Joe Semifero as the holdouts for an alternate solution to the village's need for new office and meeting space.
Paul Cousins, who was vocal about purchasing the library property last month when the option was put on the table, spoke further on why he believed the library's existing building would be the wise choice for village government offices.
He continued to say that the offices do not have to be within what others consider the perimeter of the "downtown area."
"I have said previously that there is one thing I can't do (and that) is put (the village offices downtown," Cousins said.
Previously Cousins argued that he considers anything within one minute's walking distance to be "downtown," which the current library site is, he said.
Carson maintained his position that, based on the village zoning map and the Downtown Development Authority district, the downtown is defined by areas that are zoned Central Business District and village commercial.
"If you want a successful downtown, village offices have to be a part of it," he said.
"We are fortunate enough to be in a development and redevelopment phase. Developers have invested in our downtown and we need to follow suit."
On April 17 the DDA unanimously passed a resolution that the village keep its offices in the downtown district, although it did not stipulate any sort of action by the DDA to induce that outcome.
A major consideration for moving the village offices has been the need for space to optimally house existing staff and accommodations for current and future storage needs.
Last month Dan Redstone of Redstone Architects presented a floor plan for proposed offices in the library building.
This week Richard Henes of Ann Arbor-based Cornerstone Design Inc. presented a needs analysis of how much space the village staff would require immediately, with consideration for future expansion.
Redstone's floor plan, with input from Village Manager Donna Dettling, was based on 5,000 square feet of space.
Henes' recommendation came in at just 3,600 with about 500 square feet for future needs.
The library building is 4,312 square feet.
"One consultant has determined 5,000 square feet with staff input and another has come up with less than that," Cousins said.
"(With) $580,000 available balance, we have no need to set aside or finance any additional funds in the budget."
He factored in the fact that building footprint and build out, as well as parking and other concerns aside from construction of the builder are not a factor if the village purchases the library.
Trustee Ray Tell said that he favored the purchase because of how he views the move to the library building.
"This doesn't have to be a permanent solution," he said, suggesting five and eight years as projections for how long village officials could call the library home until a downtown solution that was to everyone's liking presented itself.
Tell indicated that National City bank could change ownership or some other variable could change and leave the village to find a solution with little notice.
"I would rather be proactive."
Trustees Donna Fisher and Jim Smith discussed modular buildings. Smith talked about several companies in Michigan and adjoining states that construct such buildings.
"A lot of them were very intriguing," Smith said.
Semifero was against spending half a million dollars on a stopgap solution.
"Even if (real estate values) flattened out and we could get the same for it, we're essentially buying a building that we would have to put money into," Semifero said.
"If we're lucky we could get our initial investment and maybe a little bit more out of it."
He added that the village would end up in the library building permanently due to "inertia."
Keough said he would have been willing to spend a little more money on village offices - up to $1 million.
He too was skeptical of whether or not the library building could be resold later to recoup what the village pays for it.
"I have my doubts as to whether we could resell the library for over $500,000 in a few years."
Keough continued to voice displeasure the following day.
"I'm disappointed that we took the village offices out of downtown," he said.
"I think we could have had a very welcoming site within our downtown and we could have done it for not that much more money than we will probably end up spending at the library."
Keough noted that he was glad all options, including the library, were on the table, saying that the process was open and honest.
"We did act promptly and in accordance with the normal procedures for making a purchase offer," Keough said.
The village is also under a strict timetable to spend bond money for the new office space.
Village officials have to make a decision quickly, because 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; of which $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 Dettling, who said that at least $373,000 must be used by October.
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
TOP JOBS
