The Platteville City Council was presented with a City Hall space needs study recently. The study, conducted by Southwest Design Associates, Inc. at a cost of $5,000, looked at remodeling the existing facility versus constructing a new city hall.
According to the report, the original building was completed in August 1928, with a total of 32,014 gross square feet. The building's exterior was repaired and tuckpointed and a new roof was placed on the building in 2010.
The original fire department space in the building was remodeled into the police department space; however, it is now empty after construction of the new off-site police station.
Recommendations outlined in the report include:
• Restore wood flooring by removing carpeting, stripping and resealing.
• Provide new interior second stairway exit and exit corridor for second floor and auditorium balcony.
• Removal of lay-in ceiling, reconfigure interior walls, repair, insulate drywall exterior walls.
• Remove differing floor levels of old police area and lower entire area down to level of western office area along with an exit corridor from the west office area to the new eastern stairs.
It was also noted that any major architectural floor plan change will require modifications to the existing sprinkler system.
Additional renovations were cited in the report, bringing the approximate cost of renovating the building to $1,652,100.
The report also outlined the costs associated with constructing a new city hall. That cost was estimated at $1,904,200.
"The city will need to decide shortly if they want to invest large amounts of money into the current city hall, or invest those dollars into one of the many downtown redevelopment projects being considered," said Larry Bierke, Platteville city manager. "Investing this kind of money is not an issue to be taken lightly and I'm confident in saying that the city council has been, and is already, taking a long hard look at what investment options make the most sense for the future of Platteville."
The study was accepted by the council, with no action taken.