A remodeling coming to Fortville Town Hall will reconfigure offices and upgrade the building.
Mitchell Kirk | Daily Reporter
FORTVILLE — Town leaders and employees are preparing for an overhaul to the building housing their offices in the coming weeks.
Currently estimated at $2.7 million, the upgrades slated for town hall aim to make its space more useful for conducting business and improving the public’s access to municipal departments. The remodeling will coincide with improvements to the town’s community center and Memorial Park as well as the construction of a new water treatment plant.
One of the jobs slated for town hall, 714 E. Broadway St., is re-configuring the office space inside. Town manager Joe Renner said it will improve functionality, adding the current setup often requires going through someone’s office to get to another.
“It’s not really conducive to doing business,” Renner said.
He added improvements are also coming that will prevent water leaks and insulation issues that have made the building difficult to keep warm in the winters and cool in the summers.
“It’s just time; it’s due for some improvements,” Renner said.
Town hall’s entrance will move from the north side of the building to its west, where it will lead to the utility office and windows for the clerk-treasurer’s office and police department.
“It’ll work better for public access as well,” Renner said
The area that formerly housed the fire department will be remodeled into space for town council and other public meetings. Renner said it will be equipped with audio/visual capabilities for presentations and for people to tune in to meetings remotely.
The town’s volunteer fire department dissolved in 2019 after Vernon Township began centralizing fire protection in the area and opened a new fire station at 600 Vitality Drive.
Town hall’s current meeting space will become offices, Renner said.
The Fortville Police Department will expand a little, Renner continued, adding the town hall will receive an extensive electrical update as well.
According to online Hancock County property records, the town hall building was built in 1977. Renner said the town bought it in the mid-1980s and that it had previously housed a telephone company.
The project will include some exterior work too, including brick wainscoting on much of the building. It also remains to be determined whether the roof will be replaced or just repaired.
Doug Tischbein of Orleans-based Reynolds Construction, which is leading the project, said contractor mobilization is scheduled for the end of February with demolition starting the first week of March. He added that may be delayed a couple weeks due to coordinating the trailers that will serve as Fortville’s temporary municipal offices. That’s where bills will be paid and town business will be conducted in the interim. Public meetings will be held at the community center. The project is expected to take five to six months.
Improvements at the community center, 400 W. Church St., and nearby Memorial Park are also part of the project. The community center will get a new roof; two of its rooftop heating, ventilation and air conditioning units replaced; solar panels to offset energy costs; a security camera system; and improved access control for the building.
At Memorial Park, new lighting is coming to the basketball and tennis courts.
Reynolds Construction’s guaranteed maximum price for the town hall, community center and park improvements is currently estimated at $2.7 million. The town plans to fund the project with a bond backed by a tax levy. Officials and their financial adviser don’t expect it to result in property owners paying more taxes, as they’re prevented from doing so by the state’s property tax caps. The new levy will, however, reshuffle the pieces of Fortville’s tax pie in a way that will result in less property tax money going to the town’s general fund.
Tischbein said the new water treatment plant project is slated to break ground in early March as well.
“March is going to be very busy,” he said.
That project is estimated at $10.7 million and will go near where the current plant is off Church Street near Memorial Park. Officials have said water rates may need be raised to help cover that cost, but likely not for a couple years and will be able to be phased in gradually.
