Mayor Beyer called the
Special Meeting of the Rockford City Council to order at 6:00 p.m. The meeting was held in the Council Chambers
of City Hall 6031 Main Street, Rockford, MN.
The purpose of the special meeting was to begin preliminary planning for
the construction of a
ROLL CALL
Roll call was taken, the
following members were present: Beyer, Altringer, Graner, Nichols, and
Seymour. Also in attendance was: Administrator Carswell.
Recently at the March 25,
2008 council meeting the city council recommended that the city should begin
planning the construction of city hall since interest rates are low and
construction companies are looking for work.
The council requested staff schedule a special meeting on April 1, 2008
at 6 p.m. to determine if the project should include construction of an event
center and if so the capacity.
Therefore, staff posted notice of the special meeting and notified the
newspaper per state requirements.
Each council member was
provided with stickers to vote yes or no on five (5) statements.
1. City hall construction is the priority on this project.
2. An event center is secondary to this project.
3. An event center should be part of this project.
4. The
event center should accommodate 100.
5. The event center should accommodate 200 people.
The council also was asked
to vote for preliminary site plans they preferred, which were completed by BKV
Architects listed as: d2, d3, d4 or e1.
Council Member Seymour
outlined his concerns about this project as follows: the school is going to
request an operational levy this year; he feels the flood levee project should
be completed first and waiting another year will not affect the project.
Council member Altringer
stated that the city will save money by moving forward with this project now
while interest rates are low and construction bids will be very competitive due
to lack of work. It was stated that the
slow economy recover and when it does many projects will move forward which
will mean that costs will increase, however, if the city moves forward now when
costs are low we can save money on the project.
Administrator Carswell
informed the city council that the city has outgrown the existing space. Staff is working on top of each other and
there are concerns about mold since the roof is leaking again. The building was originally constructed in
1940’s and the second story was added in 1984 and there were four staff
personnel. Now 24 years later that same
city hall is being used and there are 5 staff people and one consultant who
works twice a month. The city has grown
and the file cabinets are taking over much of the work space. The existing city hall is 2,100 SF and
one-half of that space is the council chambers on the first floor. There is no off street parking for meetings,
nor is the building handicap accessible.
There was a lengthy
discussion about the event center and whether to construct that with a capacity
of 100 or 200 people. BKV Architects
gave staff a preliminary budget figure for a 200 capacity event center
and it exceeds the city’s
debt limit. There was discussion that
the event center could be bid for 100 and an alternate bid would be to increase
the size to 200.
The group looked at some of
the preliminary concept plans and thought that some of the space could be
shared to make the project more economical.
The council reviewed the
concept plans prepared by BKV Architects and discussed what will work best and
the consensus was that E-1 seemed to be the most economical building, but D-3
was also favored.
BKV Architects prepared an
outline for the project. Once the city
council has determined whether to construct an event center and the capacity of
that center, then next step would be to hold a visioning session.
During the Vision Session
the city would develop architectural goals – view images of other structures,
establish site plans and floor plans.
The architects would then complete those plans as recommended within two
months.
The next step would be
design development when the city would define mechanical, electric, security, etc.
Exterior and interior concepts are explored by this phase and detailed
construction estimates are completed.
This phase takes about 6-8 weeks.
Construction documents could
be prepared by mid August and bids awards in September of 2008.
Staff provided some of the
very preliminary budget figures from BKV and discussed financing the project. Administrator
Carswell provided information of preliminary 2008 payable 2009 total valuation
of property in
MOTION was made by
Altringer, seconded by Graner to hire BVK Architects to proceed with the City
hall/event center as the city architect and engineer for the project to move
forward to the construction drawings after the planning meetings have been
completed.
MOTION CARRIED-VOTING IN
FAVOR: BEYER, ALTRINGER, GRANER, NICHOLS, AND SEYMOUR.
The city council scheduled a
special council Visioning Session for the project for April 29, 2008 at 6:00
p.m. in the council chambers of city hall.
BKV Architects will be present to guide the city council through this
portion of the project.
Adjournment
MOTION TO ADJOURN was made
by Altringer, seconded by
Mayor Beyer adjourned the
meeting at 8:25 p.m.
____________________________
Michael
Beyer, Mayor
ATTEST:
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