Cascade Township Board rejects $1.2M renovation plan for Township Hall

By Madison Bennett | MLive

The Cascade Township Board has rejected a plan for Township Hall renovations created by their engineering firm as being too much to spend on the building.

Representatives from the firm, Fischbeck, Thompson, Carr and Huber (FTC&H), presented plans for renovations to the Township Hall to the board at a meeting on Wednesday, May 10. The renovations were estimated to cost $1.2 million.

Board members said they did not feel the township should spend that much money on the repairs, as the building has many ongoing issues, and expressed a desire to eventually move out of the location.

The current Township Hall has problems with the roof, parking lot and sidewalk pavement and the HVAC system, according to township officials.

"I don't like spending a million bucks on a building...we're not staying there, we can't," Trustee Jim Koessel said.

According to Township Supervisor Ben Swayze, the most "critical piece" that needs to be taken care of in order for the township to remain in the building, even this winter, is the roof.

"The biggest issue we have is because it's a flat roof, so we get snow melt issues," Swayze said. "We get 10 inches of snow and then we'll have like a flash thaw, and that's when we really get the damage."

Swayze said the building was originally built in the 1960s and has been re-purposed multiple times, starting as a modular office building, then becoming a library and eventually the Township Hall.

The original proposed project began with a feasibility study in 2014 and consisted of three phases -- a needs assessment for the township organization, a master planning process for township properties, a design for a new Township Hall with a rough cost estimate.

Following the three phases, a community forum on the project was held on March 24, 2016. Ultimately, township residents did not support the new Township Hall building plan as presented.

Instead, the township decided to not continue with the project and it was suggested that the township make repairs to the building that would allow them to remain in the building for the time being.

The firm's new plan included renovations to the building's most immediate issues but reflected a long-term solution.

All board members voted against approving the plan and asked representatives from the firm to re-evaluate and come up with a short-term plan that would still address the most pressing issues, but at a lower cost.
 

This post originally appeared May 12, 2017 on MLive.com.