The Leighton Township Board Thursday night gave the green light to hiring attorney Roger Swets to draw up an installment purchase agreement for building a new township hall next to the District Library on the northern edge of Moline.
Plans for a new hall and offices have been in the works for some time. Swets will draw up an agreement for Leighton to pay for redesigning new offices and renovation of the existing offices to make more room for the fire department, which will expand to take over the old hall entirely.
Supervisor Steve Deer said the final bill for a new hall would be about $1.8 million and Treasurer Char Troost has reported that the township could borrow $600,000 using an investment agreement purchase to avoid having to seek a bond. The loan could be for up to 15 years.
Deer said he had a public meeting recently at the library and Trustee John Hooker said project architect Dan Bode of The Architecture Group (TAG) of Grand Rapids gave a presentation to the Planning Commission Wednesday night. Both reported they have not seen anything in the way of negative comments about the proposed project thus far.
The supervisor also said he expects that bids will be taken by March and they hope to have construction commence sometime in April and have it completed by December 2016.
Township officials have insisted the current hall is just too small to handle township business and meetings and the operations of the fire department. So another part of the plan would be to spend about $262,000 for a fire department truck bay and let the department use all of the old hall.
The township hall and fire station now is located on Kalamazoo Avenue, just north of 144th Avenue and just south of Green Lake. The new hall’s 12-acre site, township officials believe, would be much more centrally located in the township, it already is land the township owns and it would be a good fit with the library adjacent.
Troost has noted that last summer the township had $530,000 in its capital improvements fund and more than $700,000 in its general fund balance. However, she added it is not wise to drain all of the fund balance for obvious reasons. So negotiations have been made with United Bank for a 10-year loan at 2.25% interest.
Clerk Mary Lou Nieuwenhuis said the current township hall, built in 1984, just isn’t big enough any more to handle the clerk’s, treasurer’s and supervisor’s records. She said because the township has grown so much in the last 20 years, the needs are greater, particularly in providing adequate space for meetings and for elections.