Plans begin for new town hall

The Moorcroft Town Center (MTC) was the subject of discussion at a recent workshop between the council, HDR Engineering’s Heath Turbiville and Jeff Holberg.

Holberg, who is the chief of the Moorcroft Volunteer Fire Department as well as building inspector for the municipality, has been given the responsibility of general contractor over the modifications to the area of the MTC building into which Town Hall is to be relocated. This talk was to provide him with an overall site plan and detailed thoughts for each room.

After a walk through, Mayor Ben Glenn said to his council, “I didn’t know how you wanted to handle it, maybe it would help, if you guys want to walk down there and walk through these. I think we need to give some direction to Jeff since he’s going to be running this.”

As the group acknowledged the offer and settled down to listen to the mayor’s suggestions, himself a long-time construction business owner, he began with his perceptions of what will be the public works office, saying that with new paint, cleaned carpets and a new ceiling, “that room is a functional room”.

Councilman Dale Petersen, intimately familiar with the building, asked about the existing cabinetry in the room and Glenn responded, “I think leave it because there are files in that room that need to be back there anyway.”

The bathrooms were considered, and beyond the paint, ceiling and new LED lighting, “There’re some things that needs to be removed because it was trying to function as a 300-person restroom but I don’t think we have to go in there and do a full remodel of either bathroom,” the mayor continued.

The lockers will be removed from the hallways and replaced with glass fronted cabinetry. Petersen envisions these “straight up from the floors and inset…Same idea as the other end of the hall.”

The main storage room will benefit from the same three touchups, paint, ceiling and light with the added preparations for central heating within the municipal space. According to Glenn, “We will have forced air from there… It will kind of depend on what the HVAC people say, but, I believe there will be three separate units – three three-ton units with outside condensers.”

There will be no more radiant heat in this area of the building, Glenn reported, “It will all run through the ceiling through duct work.”

Councilwoman Heidi Humpal approved: “When we do it, just do it right.”

In conducting minimal changes in these areas, the money may be spent on the more expensive modifications.

The first to be discussed was the council chambers. Glenn shared his view of what this room can be.

“This will probably be one of the easier rooms. We’re going to leave the brick on the back wall as an accent. Whether we whitewash it or something, we can decide that later on,” he said.

“We would like that ceiling to go all the way up; I believe there’s about 30 inches of space right now and we want to tuck that lid as high as we can get it and it still be a drop ceiling. New LED lights and a sound system, it will need speakers and [microphones], but most of that is probably wireless now. I think that was the main concern.”

Video will also be considered for the chambers.

“We will need a council desk built in place,” the mayor continued “I would like it to be raised six and a half or seven inches and I would rather have it a U shape so we can look at each other down the line versus what we have now, not being able to see each other and still talk to the public. That will be a manufactured piece…The room there is 24.8 and the one we’re in now is 22 feet… For the cabinets, we would source a local cabinet maker for that, keep it real simple.”

Councilmen Petersen and Austin Smith agreed and advocated the extra space, “I feel like we have a little more room in there.”

The police area, according to Glenn, “This is where you’ll have more construction take place. The one wall will have a block opening cut through it in order to access the area front to back.”

Along with the paint, new carpet and new ceilings, the interview room and the evidence storage will all be framed up to the steal of the I joists in the roof and the ceiling will be dropped back into those rooms. The secure storage is a room we have to have for some of their items… We debated not having any closed offices, but I believe you probably need to have one, the rest of them are just kind of free-floating desks, back-to-back and around the walls. I don’t think this is a hard area. That door that enters from the corridor will be a framed wall with garage doors the same style of door we have at city hall now… There will be more openings cut into the brick wall going into the clerk’s office, there will be their garage door for their [front]desk and the door into their office.”

The windows needing modification throughout the sections of Town Hall will be split between the material and labor, according to the mayor with expressed approval by the rest of the governing body, The $35,000 grant buys windows and the town pays somebody to install them, “more bang for our buck.” He suggested Anderson 100 windows with high composite frames.

“Centralize three big windows down each side and stucco back to the brick so we’re not really changing framing or brick…” Glenn said “I picture one in the clerk’s office, one in the deputy clerk’s office, two in the police area, and depending on budget, we might be able to sneak in the seniors’ areas with windows. If we were to improve that whole pod with efficiency, it would help our end of it as well.”

There are eight doors that must be installed or replaced within the space for security and while Glenn wants to reuse all existing doors, the doors entering the clerk’s and police offices are a couple he would like to see made of steel.

Smith suggested a small window installed in each of those to allow sight acknowledgement of visitors.

The needed lock sets will be piggybacked onto the grants for fobs if possible. When asked about this, Turbiville was not sure of the possible options.

Holberg will also create a furred-out wall in the back of the clerk’s office as well as in other spaces to allow ease of wiring.

The final big decision for the new Moorcroft Town Hall, is the entrance.

“I would like to elevate the roof and make it look like this is the entrance to city hall instead of just more glass and a door,” Glenn shared his vision of the aperture. “That opening is only about five feet with a door to the south and the rest of that will be big windows letting light in…That will be a ADA with probably, a button door; it will be a 3.0 door, approximately seven foot opening. I wasn’t picturing a second door. I think it would be the simplest rather than stacking another door in there.”

Petersen asked his fellow council members to consider an electrical marque similar in size to the one hanging on the west side of the MTC, but two-sided and specifically for town hall use. “I know they’re expensive, I know we’re talking about more money… saying Town of Moorcroft, city hall with an arrow and we could flash messages.”

Glenn suggested Schneider checking prices and creating a budget item for the body’s consideration.

After further discussion of details, Petersen said of the overall project and the guidance to Holberg, “I like the layout and I think it’s a great plan and I’m looking forward to us moving forward with this ASAP.”

The council will allow Holberg to order materials above the current limit of $1500 without authorization from the governing body. Councilman Bob Stewart opined, “I trust Jeff enough to be able to go with what he’s going to need because it would slow everything down if he had to wait…”

Petersen agreed and added, “If something comes up, he tells us what’s happening and comes to give us an update once a month.”