City Hall plans open house
By Angie Landsverk
The expansion of Weyauwega’s city hall and police department is ahead of schedule.
“Immel believes the bulk of their work will be done around April 14,” said City Administrator Patrick Wetzel.
Howard Immel Inc., of Green Bay, is the contractor for the project, and the project was slated to be completed in late April or early May.
City staff plan to move into the building during the week of April 18.
“Either the week of April 25 or the first week in May, we plan to start the reconstruction of the parking lot,” Wetzel said. “That will take roughly three weeks in May.”
Wetzel said the council wants to reward the contract for the project within the next couple weeks.
After the parking lot project is completed, an open house will be planned, he said.
When the Weyauwega Common Council met this month, it approved several purchases related to the municipal building, including nine metal wardrobe lockers for the police department at a cost of $9,175 from Storage Systems Midwest.
Wetzel said there will be five lockers in the men’s locker room and four in the women’s locker room.
The lockers are expected to arrive and be installed in mid to late May.
The city will purchase office chairs from Office Outfitters, of Waupaca.
It will repurpose existing chairs when possible for use as lobby furniture.
In addition, the city will buy another 10 lobby or corridor chairs from Office Outfitters at $63 per chair.
Five televisions will also be purchased.
“We will be buying one for each meeting room,” Wetzel said.
There will be three meeting rooms in the building.
The other two televisions will be placed in the community room.
He said the televisions may be used for such things as training videos and PowerPoint presentations.
The contract for the custom council seating area was awarded to Tuttle Lake Woodwork Inc., of Neenah, at a cost of $9,436.
Wetzel said it will be installed in early May, with the city aiming for that space to be ready in time for the council’s May 16 meeting.
Lightweight tables, stackable chairs and carts will be purchased for the community room, and Wetzel said the council needs to develop a policy related to how the new warming kitchen may be used.
“We need more discussion on the uses,” he said.
As a result, the council had not yet decided what type of kitchen appliances it will purchase.
“Because we are tearing the parking lot up, we have time before that area will be open to the public,” Wetzel said. “So, we have time to decide on the type of appliances.”
Discussion about how to improve city hall dates back to 2008 and included and assessment of city hall and its needs.
The options included renovating city hall or constructing a new building on various sites.
After reviewing various options, the common council decided to keep city hall downtown.
A review of the building’s suitability for renovation, as well as the two buildings next to it, also took place.
Several years ago, the city purchased the two lots next to city hall – at 105 and 107 E. Main St. – in preparation for an expansion project.
The assessment of the old city hall identified a number of items needing to be addressed, including a lack of security, proper storage, meeting space, voting space proper police function and energy efficiency.
The completed project will result in a two-story building on those three lots.
It will include space for city hall, the police department and a community center.
The expansion of the city’s wastewater treatment plant is also underway and expected to be completed in early April.
“We will be turning that on in April/May,” Wetzel said. “Both are coming together at the same time.”