Stratford to get estimates for office renovation
By Kevin O’Brien
Plans for renovating Stratford’s municipal office are likely to move forward after the Public Works Committee voted last week to pursue cost estimates based on conceptual drawings from 2022.
Committee chairman Dale Heil said the next step is to get more detailed drawings and construction estimates. The drawings, provided by Dan Wenzel of Trimpac, Inc., show an enclosed cubicle area being built into the corner of the village clerk’s office.
Trustee Maryel Schoenfuss made a motion to proceed with getting estimates, and it was approved by the committee. Heil said the village needs specific dimensions and estimates before authorizing any work to be done.
DPW Scott Dennee said he’ll see if Wenzel can provide more detailed plans and get the estimates from the village and Frombach Construction.
In a related matter, the committee held off on making any decisions on proposed renovations to the police department’s garage until the village can address the building’s leaking roof.
Heil said he would also like more details about the project, which has been proposed by police chief Thomas Koontz as a way to provide more secure storage space for ammunition, weapons and evidence. Koontz’s preliminary estimates for materials total about $8,000, but he’s requesting a $10,000 budget to account for unanticipated cost increases.
Koontz said the work could be done with either donated labor or by the village’s public works crews.
When it comes to the leaky roof, Koontz said the drywall gets wet but water doesn’t actually drip through when it rains. He also noted that his proposal includes sealing holes in the walls where air is leaking.
Trustee Damon Engelbretson wondered if it was worth looking at completely replacing the roof as long as the village was considering interior renovations.
“That would be a significantly more expensive project, and we’d have to put that into more of a long term plan,” Heil said.
Engelbretson also mentioned the possibility of adding space for a second vehicle.
Koontz said that would be great, but his renovation proposal is “bare bones” at this point, just so the police department can have more useable space to work in.
Heil asked Koontz and Dennee to work together on evaluating all of the issues at the garage and come up with some cost estimates for the committee’s next meeting.
“If we’re going to spend a lot of money putting a new roof on it, we need to really address the rest of the building,” Heil said. “And it doesn’t pay to renovate if the roof is leaking.”
Other business
■ The committee voted to recommend the purchase of a 2025 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab Work Truck, with a four-cylinder engine, at a cost of $43,266, to be used as a work truck for the public works department.
■ The committee voted to recommend approval of a firewood removal permit that will allow village residents and employees to take wood from downed trees at the Klemme Reserve, where logging operations were recently completed. The proposal includes a $15 permit fee and an Aug. 1 deadline for retrieving firewood.
■ The committee voted to recommend posting an ad seeking bids for three proposed street projects that would be at least partially funded by a $26,000 Local Road Improvement Project grant awarded to the village.
■ Dennee told the committee that he is denying the renewal of a permit for a storage container at 211833 STH 97 on land owned by James and Veronica Schmidt. Dennee said he made it clear when he first issued the permit that the container needed to be painted the same color as the house on the property, but that never happened.
“I know some people in town have issues with it, so I’m not going to reissue a new one,” he said.
■ Dennee told the committee that one of his employees plans to quit at the end of this month, so the village will need to hire a total of two workers for his department.
When asked, Dennee said he talked to Klemme Sales about only parking cars on the north side of Monarch Street, from STH 97 to Legacy Street, and they were fine with it. The board still needs to take action to remove an exemption included in the parking ordinance years ago that allowed the business to park cars on both sides of the street overnight.
OFFICE SPACE - This drawing from Dan Wenzel at Trimpac, Inc shows a proposed renovation project at the village offices in Stratford. The village’s Public Works Committee voted last week to get more detailed designs and cost estimates for the project.
