Plain City Council has approved borrowing up to $4 million for the construction of a new municipal building. The building is expected to hold administrative offices, the police department, a large meeting room and council chambers.
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Plain City has taken the first step to financing the construction of the new village hall and police station.
At Monday night’s meeting, Plain City Village Council approved an ordinance to authorize financing for a new municipal building.
Council approved borrowing up to $4 million for the building. Village Administrator Nathan Cahall acknowledged to council the amount is “substantially higher than what was discussed.” He said it is an “up to” number, which means the village can borrow up to $4 million, but it is not required to borrow that amount. He said the ordinance needs a number so the village can get started and the number must be high enough that it covers any emergency or contingency. The loan will be repaid using revenue from the capital improvement income tax.
Cahall called the financing “a first step” toward getting the building constructed.
He said the village is “in the final throes of meetings” with architects and engineers.
“We should have a pretty good estimate, a walking around number, in the next couple of weeks,” Cahall said.
Council member Darren Lee asked if council could get a breakdown of the costs, mentioning construction, furnishings and information technologies.
Cahall said that when the village has those numbers, he will pass them along.
He said groundbreaking for building will happen, “hopefully in the springtime.”
Earlier this year council purchased a 3.14 acres property on Village Drive, between the Lovejoy Plaza and the condominiums to the west, for $290,000.
In addition to village offices and police station, the building is expected to have a large community room, council chambers, and additional parking for meetings and events. Officials have said the village has an agreement with the owner of the building to share use of the Lovejoy Plaza parking lot when needed.
Plain City Mayor Darrin Lane has repeatedly said consolidating village operations is a primary goal. Lane has said bring all village departments and staff under one roof will improve efficiencies and increase customer service.
Currently, village administrative offices and the police department are housed in three different locations. Officials have said the build space is inefficient and infrastructure on these buildings has become costly to maintain. Additionally, the village must heat, cool and provide utility service to three buildings, which is inefficient. Officials have also said that because of the age, infrastructure on these buildings has become costly to maintain.
Village officials have, for several years, discussed options for consolidating village operations, going back to the possible purchase of the former Plain City Elementary School building on Main Street. In 2017, officials explored the possibility of rehabilitating the current village hall and council chambers. The process was both expensive and cumbersome and was eventually scrapped.
Officials have said that with the new building, the village will sell the current buildings to offset a portion of the cost.
In other news:
Council voted on measure to increase funding to several village funds.
By rule, the budgets for many village departments are set by a percentage of village revenue. The police department gets 34.74 of village revenue, the streets department gets 16.11 percent, the park fund gets 2.5 percent and the pool gets 0.5 percent.
Fiscal Officer Renee Sonnett said revenue for this year is exceeding estimates set last year by about $130,000. As such, the money was to be added to the departments entitled to a percentage. Cahall said the departments would still need council approval to spend the money.
Lee said that he would like to see the money go directly into the general fund where it can be dispersed to “a budgeting area that needs to be addressed,” though he gave no specifics.
The measure was set as an emergency, which requires five votes of council to approve. Lee voted in opposition and council member Shannon Pine was not at the meeting, meaning that while the vote passed 4-1, the resolution to adjust the budgets failed.
While the police department did not receive the increased revenue, it did get a $2,000 check from Jonathan Alder Superintendent Gary Chapman. The superintendent presented the check to Police Chief Dale McKee.
“They have been providing outstanding professional development training,” Chapman said.
He said the police department has been “such a great support to me.”