Potential office space in new Public Safety Building Being Eyed
EDWARDSVILLE – August 4, 2015. At the regularly scheduled Township Board meeting on Tuesday, July 28, Township Supervisor Frank Miles updated the full Board on the progress of facility planning issues for the township.
Supervisor Miles reported that both he and the members of the Facility Planning Committee, consisting of Trustee Randy Williamson and Trustee Gary Head, have met with Edwardsville Mayor Hal Patton, City Administrator Tim Haar and Edwardsville Fire Chief Rich Welle to discuss various options with respect to potentially locating township operations inside the new Public Safety facility being constructed at Schwarz and Plum Streets in downtown Edwardsville.
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This approach offers another option with respect to relocating township offices and that further discussions are ongoing between the City and the Township to see if we can get an arrangement developed. Supervisor Miles said, “I have talked about this issue for some time with Mayor Patton and with their project getting really underway, now is the time we need to discuss some options.” Another meeting is expected next week to discuss ways to make the spaces work for both the Township and the City. He said, “It’s a logical next step in developing a closer partnership between local government and the Township.”
Supervisor Miles and the Edwardsville Township Board are currently undertaking efforts to conduct a full and thorough analysis of looking at the possibility of redeveloping the current township office and the Hayes Mallory Community Building located at Crane Street in Edwardsville. A Request for Proposals (RFP) for redeveloping the Township office site is due for submittal at the end of August. In order conduct this analysis, Supervisor Miles said that both he and the Board are conducting their due diligence on behalf of the taxpayers, who own these properties.
In 2014, the Township voted to close the Hayes Mallory Community building due to life safety and fire code violations.
This step was taken after the Township appointed a citizen committee of City and Village representatives, an architect, a realtor, planners, a member of the family of Hays Mallory and finance professionals, to look at the condition and viability of the community building. After building code reviews were completed by both the City of Edwardsville and a private inspector were completed, as well as a review of potential other meeting space locations, the recommendation was made to close the Community building.
In addition, this Committee recommended that the Township look at not only redeveloping the Hayes Mallory Building site but also include the Township Office Building site to see if there was interest from the development community to purchase the entire location, as it is a larger piece of land consisting of 4 lots. In terms of a plan to relocate township offices, it was suggested that the funds generated from the property sale, coupled with potential State and Federal Grants, could be used to build a new office building, potentially at the Township Park.
Township officials then asked an architect to develop costs for various options including a potential new building at the park and an addition to the current building with a renovation of the current building to meet current codes. With these costs in hand, the Board had a better idea as to how much costs were for various options. All of these approaches ranged from a couple a hundred thousand dollars to the more costly option of an entirely new building.
The Township also followed the recommendation of the Committee and sent out an RFP in June of 2015 to seek possible interest in developing the entire site. “At this time, the township has entertained interest in the site from a couple of interested developers and were also approached by the City of Edwardsville to potentially locate the Township operations in the new Public Safety Facility”, said Supervisor Miles.
Supervisor Miles said, “It has always been about the funds available, such as those generated from a possible developer purchase and the use of State Grants, to undertake the effort of possible new construction of an office building at the Township Park or even obtaining the funds needed to renovate or to add an addition to the existing building. We have even contacted our local state legislators to ask them for funding should a new capital bill be developed for projects in the future. Raising taxes, or issuing bonds, was never on the table. What would be nice though is to return Township owned properties to the tax rolls, but we will do what we can with what we have”.
For more information about the facilities planning committee meeting please contact Edwardsville Township at 656-0292.
Edwardsville Township is comprised of the City of Edwardsville, Village of Glen Carbon and unincorporated areas just outside of these two municipalities. The Township Supervisor’s office is located at 300 West Park in Edwardsville and is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Monday and Friday and from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Learn more about Edwardsville Township online at www.edwardsvilletownship.com or contact the Township Offices by phone at 618-656-0292.
