Cascade OKs reduced Town Hall renovations to fix immediate needs

By Madison Bennett | MLive

The Cascade Township Board has decided to go with an engineering firms plans for renovations to the Township Hall after getting the work reduced to less than half of the initial $1.2 million price tag.

Representatives from Fischbeck, Thompson, Carr and Huber had initially presented plans for renovations to the Township Hall estimated to cost $1.2 million.

But board members weren't happy with spending that much on the project, as some had expressed a desire to eventually move out of the location.

"I don't like spending a million bucks on a building...we're not staying there, we can't," Trustee Jim Koessel said at the May 10 meeting.

In response, the board asked the firm to go back, re-evaluate its proposal and come up with a lower price that would fix only the most immediate issues.

Township Manager Ben Swayze said the board asked the firm for a renovations proposal that would get the township through the next three to five years in thecurrent Township Hall/Station 1 facility.

At the board's most recent meeting, on Wednesday, May 24, Dan Durkee from FTC&H came back with that proposal.

The new estimated cost, $616,800, covers ongoing issues with the building including the roof, HVAC and site paving as well as the cost of a new generator.

The board agreed to approve all costs with the exception of the generator, lowering the price to $503,800.

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, and 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 original project and made the decision to only make the immediate repairs. 

This post originally appeared May 26, 2017 on MLive.com.