After Public Outcry Schulenburg City Council Votes 3-2 to Keep City Hall/Police Downtown

After a long back-andforth, the Schulenburg City Council voted 3-2 on Monday, Aug. 4, night to keep City Hall and the police station downtown.

The saga started earlier this year when the City embarked on renovations to the old downtown City Hall building. But after contractors removed the metal and marble facade, they discovered major structural issues.

The Council then considered abandoning the renovations in favor of purchasing land to build a new municipal complex on East Avenue. The new complex would have housed both City Hall and the police station, which is also in need of major repairs.

But many in the community didn’t want another vacant building downtown. The debate has gotten quite heated, as Mayor Connie Koopmann spoke about before the vote at last Monday’s meeting.

“It really hit me Saturday night, at 10:49, when my phone was going off,” Koopmann said. “I get a text message and this person tells me that if the Council does not vote the right way, then we’re going to be removed from office. I got another message later saying we’re not doing the job we’re elected to do.

“It was hard riding in the (Schulenburg Festival) Parade on Sunday knowing there were people out there throwing knives at our back,” she added.

Schulenburg resident Jeannie Mican addressed the issue during the meeting’s public comment period.

“After seeing all of the agendas, attending the meetings and reading minutes and such, it’s clear there’s a lot of deliberation that’s gone on out of the public eye,” Mican said. “You lost sleep, gotten hateful emails and text messages or whatever, but that’s part of being in the fishbowl, being a public servant.”

Mican said an “overwhelming” number of people want City Hall to stay downtown. Mican recalled driving up to the stop sign at Lyons Ave. and North Main St. on June 3, around 3:30 p.m.

“All the way across, there were only six vehicles,” she said. “It looked abandoned. It’s sad. That’s not the Schulenburg I built my home in and moved to 25 years ago.”

Earlier this year, Schulenburg hired the firm PGAL to assess construction costs for renovating both sites or building a new municipal complex. PGAL presented their findings to the Council last month. According to their presentation, renovating the downtown City Hall would cost somewhere between $5.6 and almost $7 million. Renovating the police station would cost between $2.8 and almost $4 million. PGAL estimated total renovation costs for both buildings would be between $8.8 and $11.4 million.

PGAL also estimated costs for new construction of a municipal complex at two different sites on East Ave. PGAL provided four estimates for the project, depending on size and the amount of “hardening” that the City specified. Those estimates were as follows:

• Low Range - $8,630,225

• Mid Range - $9,167,194

•HighRange-$10,273,421

• Highest Range $11,546,182 However, in their report, PGAL advised that a “more thorough discovery and investigation of the existing building is required to fully understand the building elements that will need to be repaired or replaced.”

When the item came up in Monday’s agenda, Alderman Greg “Wolf” Thomas said he wanted to delay the vote in order to review some new information that came to his attention.

“If we don’t vote on it tonight, it puts our budget further behind,” Koopmann said.

Thomas said he was investigating ways to keep water from damaging the foundation under City Hall, which has caused the structural issues. He said he recently spoke with some contractors who advised a French drain could possibly solve the problem.

“With that information, I would like to stay downtown and renovate the building that is there and the police station where it is at. How can we keep the water from under there? I was trying to exhaust all the avenues before I make a decision to leave. If that’ll help, I would like to stay downtown.”

“Is that a motion?” Alderman Roger Moellenberndt

asked.

“That’ll be the motion,” Thomas said.

“Then I’ll second the motion,” Moellenberndt said.

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to tackle both of them at the same time,” said Alderman Clarence Ahlschlager. “I think we should concentrate on the most important one, which is City Hall, first.”

“I would like to see that, let’s focus on City Hall,” said Alderman Frank Wick III.

“I would rather see a new building, but if this building can be saved, let’s try it,” Ahlschlager said.

Wick asked if the motion could be amended to separate the City Hall renovations from the police station renovations.

“We listed both of them on the agenda because (the police station) has been pushed to the back table since I don’t know when,” Koopmann said.

“2019,” said City Administrator Tami Walker.

“I like making the motion to include them both,” said Alderman Kathy Kleiber. “There’s not a timeline or order or anything. It just says ‘We will remodel the two of them.’” Koopmann said the City could possibly get better financing for completing both projects at the same time.

“The budget can always be amended,” Walker said.

The Mayor called for a vote and the Council voted 3-2 to approve Thomas’ motion as he originally stated it. Thomas, Moellenberndt and Kleiber voted in favor. Wick and Ahlschlager were opposed.

The Council Chamber was packed for the meeting, and many of those in attendance gave a round of applause after the vote. After the meeting, Wick called the Record to clarify his vote. Wick said he wasn’t opposed to keeping City Hall downtown. However, he said he opposed tackling both City Hall and the police station at the same time.

“What were we voting on?” he said. “There was some confusion, I think.”

Wick said he did not believe taxpayers support spending what could end up costing millions more than the budget could handle in a single year.

City offices are currently located in a building at 605 Upton Ave., near the police station. The City has leased that space through July 1, 2027, at a cost of $1,800 a month plus utilities.