EDWARDSVILLE — After engineering site survey results are complete, which should take about two weeks, Edwardsville Township officials will have a better idea of what will be involved in their renovation and expansion project.

Township officials held a facility planning committee meeting Thursday at the Edwardsville Public Library to discuss the next steps in the project, which seeks to renovate the township office at 300 W. Park St.

The committee discussed the bid process, additions/reductions to the plans and listened to a presentation from architect Jamie Henderson before recommending the next steps.

“When we set out to improve the township offices, my hope was to have a space that meets our needs, not wants but needs, and is done for as little money as possible,” said Trustee Kevin Hall, who is not on the committee.

His objectives, after learning about the needs of the staff members and the community that the township serves, were to build an ADA-compliant building; an office ideal for community assistance; do it in a cost-efficient way; have their own meeting space; prepare Hayes Mallory lot for sale to get it back on tax rolls and do all of the above that is best for environment and local appearance.

Hall referred to himself as a minimalist with this plan and advocated for restricting their outlook to the very near future versus 20 or 30 years in the future because he claims that “townships across the state are under attack” and decrease in number every year. He is not for a new building.

He retains hope that they can figure out a space for monthly meetings but conceded the larger forums, like truth in taxation and the annual townhall, would not fit. Hall recommended not building a breakroom and a shared meeting room.

“We could turn the shared meeting room into an elected officials’ office,” he suggested. “This would be primarily for the highway commissioner and the clerk, also if trustees wanted to have a meeting, they could use that space.”

This would reduce space on the Crane Street or west side of the site, he said. Based on an estimate of $150 per square foot, this move could save $85,000 if all three offices were eliminated.

The proposed site plan would include 36 additional spaces in a large lot on the south side, including where the Hayes Mallory Building used to be. Two of the spaces would be dedicated to disabled parking spots.

Trustee Kathie Duame wants to ensure there is a meeting place in the new plan, which would eliminate the needs for staff members to transfer files from the office to the meeting site and back, regardless of the weather. It would also allow staff to respond to trustee questions in a more timely manner.

“I want to make sure we have privacy for the clients,” Duame said. “I also don’t want us to be short-sighted that we make this so small that there is not room for growth and then in two years, we have to go back to the constituents, ‘Hey, we really screwed up and we need a bigger place.’”

Last month, trustees voted on one of the proposed plans, Option 1, and moved it toward starting the bid process. Henderson said he wants to execute this project by going out for bids, not simply fishing for more estimates. Henderson added that Hayes Mallory site was included in the overall site rendering as extra parking, not, as Hall requested, to be put back on the city’s tax rolls.

Henderson said he believes some fine-tuning needs to occur but no increase in space is planned while planning for future flexibility, either for later growth or if the township were to dissolve at some later point, the new building would be more marketable.

Before they start on schematic design, Henderson said he would submit a proposal for this project, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing and engineering plus a civil engineer to assist with the site design.

“It’s going to be a complete architectural and engineering proposal,” Henderson said. “Then we’ll get into schematic design; we’ll get that fine-tuned. We’ll get into design development. That will get all the engineers involved and we’re gonna start evaluating existing systems to see if they can be reused or upgrade.”

Henderson said there would be another review process to ensure the staff is on board then they’ll move to construction documents. Bidding, permitting with the city and actual construction are the next steps.

Should the bids come back higher than estimated, the township could refuse to continue with the project but would still have to pay for the work completed up to that point in time.

In January, the township took out a $1.3 million loan to finance the project.

Since it is a renovation and expansion, a 15 percent contingency fee has been set aside to plan for any surprises that crop up during the project.

“Right now, it’s going to be a spring or a summer [2020] construction project,” Henderson said. He suggested revisiting the project’s phases to ensure the township remains operational during construction. He proposed building the addition, moving all of the employees into it then renovating the existing building then move everybody back. Other options include renting space off-site, using the building’s basement or bringing in temporary trailers.

Trustee Matt Chapman wanted to discuss the additions that have surfaced in the past month or so. He started with the ADA parking spaces. Currently, there are six spaces on the building’s east side that extend past the eastern property line into the South Johnson Street right-of-way. Once the township files these changes with the city, it could demand changes to the parking at that point of the site.

Some possible solutions are to leave it where it is, install parallel parking spaces or new construction with new parking options.

Other additions include mold remediation and removal and to rebuild the basement stairs and adding an enclosure. Henderson said the drain is exposed to the elements, so it collects leaves and fills up. The landing at the stair bottom is at the same elevation as the basement so any standing water can creep under the door, get into the basement, deteriorating frames and become wicked up by the drywall.

Henderson thinks the least of those two evils is to build an enclosure versus lowering the landing, which would mean rebuilding the staircase. He told the committee that the remediation and removal need not wait until next spring.

Under Option 1, which the board chose last month, it would simply add on to the existing 2,400-square-feet of office space with another 2,400-square-feet in the rear, complete with elevator.

The current site has five offices, a small open space for clerical employees, a restroom and a mechanical room. The expansion would provide a conference room, break room, assessor’s office and more open office space. The basement of the building would remain as is, with no remodeling or additional work.

Looping back to Hall’s idea of selling the Hayes Mallory lot or keeping it for parking, Henderson asked Supervisor Fred Schulte to clarify.

“If you sell Hayes Mallory, you’re not going to have any parking,” Schulte said.

Hall said if there’s no meeting space in the building, why keep the lot? If they get rid of the elevator, that would free three or four more spaces. He said there’s also a significant amount of street parking around.

Per city code, for every 200-square-feet of office space, 24 parking spaces are needed. Parking became the linchpin for any future changes, so the committee tabled making any other changes until the engineering site survey is completed. Then, a new facilities committee meeting will be scheduled.