Aging Saukville Town Hall begs costly questions

The Town of Saukville is faced with a big decision — should officials spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair the Town Hall, build a new facility on the same site or look to rent office space elsewhere?

“We’ve known that this is coming,” Supr. Curt Rutkowski said during an Aug. 27 board meeting. “Many administrations that preceded this one have kicked the can down the road. Generally, the town didn’t have the appetite to deal with this. It’s quite a bit of money.”

But it’s time, officials said, to stop doing that.

“Our heating system is failing,” Rutkowski said. “The roof needs to be replaced. This gymnasium floor is a liability. The septic system needs to be replaced by 2027. The building is not ADA (Americans with Disabilities) compliant.

“Is this something we want to do?”

The town is “under the gun” to do something, he said, because officials fear the heating system will fail yet this year.

Town Chairman Kevin Kimmes said officials have been dealing with issues in a “piecemeal” manner because of the high price tag.

He noted that a study showed the cost to build a new facility to replace the former schoolhouse as Town Hall would be about $1.2 million.

“Most people didn’t say, ‘Yea, where can we sign on?’” Kimmes said.

The town must now consider the needed improvements and whether to make them or look at other options.

The cost of repairs includes $225,000 to replace the roof, $120,000 for a new heating, ventilating and air conditioning system, $40,000 to remove the gym floor, which has asbestos, and $10,000 to improve the dim lighting in the gym.

Redoing the cracked asphalt parking lot so water doesn’t drain into the building would cost an estimated $40,000, Kimmes said, and replacing the septic system with a holding tank is expected to cost $50,000.

The heating system, he said, is so bad “it looks like we might be looking at renting for winter or having an emergency HVAC system installed.

As officials recently inspected the system, he said, “it started falling apart in front of us.”

“We have to make some decisions,” Kimmes said.

While the options are expensive, he said, the town does have some resources to handle it, noting there is about $700,000 in the town’s reserve fund.

“We do have some money to spend on this,” he said. “We can finance for it. It’s not been done traditionally, but we can do it.”

The Town Hall is the former Lakeland School, built in 1956 and purchased by the town from the Northern Ozaukee School District in 1990. 

One resident asked how often the town uses the gym space and other portions of the building.

“We don’t need a large space like this every day,” Kimmes said, but it’s needed for heavily attended meetings, such as that night’s session on the proposed high-power transmission lines, and for elections.

Another resident asked where the town might relocate its offices, and officials said they would look at everything from Riveredge to the Bog.

The space, Kimmes noted, would not need to be in the town.

But Ozaukee County Supr. Barb Jobs, who lives in and represents the town, noted that even a temporary relocation can be expensive. Not only would the town be paying rent, the cost of moving technology is pricey, she said.

One man suggested installing a steel building on the town hall site, but Kimmes said after the meeting that’s only a temporary solution since those structures have a limited life.

The cost of abandoning the current Town Hall also needs to be considered, Supr. Marcia Nosko said.

And the idea of demolishing the hall also needs to be considered, Kimmes said, noting that’s estimated at $200,000.

One man asked whether, in addition to the cracked gym floor, asbestos can be found elsewhere in the building.

Kimmes noted that a building assessment done by Cedar Corp., the town’s planner and engineering firm, was not a deep dive into what’s needed but instead a more surface look at the issues.

“The question is how much do we spend,” he said, adding he favors obtaining a bid for emergency HVAC work so the town can remain in the hall through the winter.

“That will at least buy us time,” he said. “It gives  us time to consider how much do we invest and continue to invest in this place or do we knock it down.”

While there are things that need to be done, such as the heating system, Nosko said she’s wary of doing too much at this point.

“I would hesitate to do anything large scale without public input,” she said.

“To get this building up to snuff there’s probably a lot more than this to do.”

Nosko said she is in favor of doing must-do items such as installing an emergency heating system and creating a plan to present to residents at the town’s annual meeting in spring.

“Let the voters decide what to do,” she said. “But we can’t let this building die without knowing what the future holds for it.”

Rutkowski agreed, adding that the town should also explore its options in regard to renting space as well.

“I think there are options out there,” he said. “To spend $120,000 on a heating system, I’m just not comfortable with it.”

The board agreed to have Cedar Corp.  look at the fastest track to get a working heating system into the Town Hall and to seek options for renting space as well.

It will likely take three to six months to put together a plan  for the Town Hall for residents to consider in April, Kimmes said.