City Council Minutes 07-13-2015 Special (space needs)MINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING — MONTICELLO CITY COUNCIL
Monday, July 13, 2015 — 5:30 p.m.
North Mississippi Room, Monticello Community Center
Present: Brian Stumpf, Charlotte Gabler, Lloyd Hilgart, Tom Perrault, Glen Posusta
Absent: None
Others: Jeff O'Neill, Tracy Ergen, Wayne Oberg, other city staff
1. Call to Order
Mayor Brian Stumpf called the special meeting to order at 5:25 p.m. in the Academy
Room.
2. Purpose of Meeting: Discuss space needs for City departments
Jeff O'Neill explained that the purpose of this meeting is to review some of the space
needs in the City and determine what options might be available.
3. Workshop: Discussion of space needs and options for Prairie Center building
Jeff O'Neill provided a slide presentation and discussed the goals of the meeting to
provide direction on expanding staff facilities at city hall and discuss options for Prairie
Center building.
Jeff O'Neill first talked about the Prairie Center building, which serves as a retail office
for FiberNet. The Sheriff s Office uses a suite of offices on the second level of that
building. Currently, there is an open suite of offices on the first level, which was
previously occupied by Rivers of Mope. On the second level, there is a
conference /meeting room and some offices that are not occupied on the east half. There
is also a storage area located next to the Sheriff's office on the west half. Jeff O'Neill
displayed pictures of the FiberNet offices, which takes up the east half of the lower level.
He also provided pictures of the vacant offices (Rivers of Hope) and showed an office
that is being used to store old computers to be recycled. Jeff O'Neill asked Council to
consider what kind of use might be best if the city would utilize the space. It might also
be a consideration to move the FiberNet offices and Sheriff's Office to another site and
sell the Prairie Center building.
Jeff O'Neill next discussed the potential of analyzing City Hall to make better use of the
space and possibly expand or reorganize to accommodate more staff. It might be
desirable to bring more city functions into city hall. A small work group had discussed:
consolidating the building staff into their large office, reorganizing the front lobby area to
create more office or storefront space, changing the records room into office space,
adding an office cubicle in the alcove (windows facing Walnut Street), and reorganizing
cubicles.
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Jeff O'Neill discussed some of the possibilities of moving offices to other sites to free up
the Prairie Center building for sale. The Sheriff's Office could be moved to the Fire Hall,
cold storage could be found in other places, and FiberNet staff could be moved to other
locations. Jeff O'Neill noted, however, that the Prairie Center building could provide a
good source for other uses for the city: Friendship Island, meeting space, storage space,
Sheriff's Office stays there, future DMV in the event they would have to relocate due to
development of Block 34, and relocate Chamber of Commerce from the small building
on the corner of TH 25 /CSAH 75.
Jeff O'Neill discussed some future expansion plans for city space that might allow
reorganization at the community center. Currently the City has a long term plan to build
a public works facility. The National Guard may have some interest in moving to a
different building in order to expand their staff and operations. An addition to a public
works facility might be a possibility for them. Jeff O'Neill also noted that original design
of the community center allowed for a second floor above city hall. That might be an
area to look at. Jeff O'Neill suggested that planning would likely need to include an
architect and building code review if they were to look at a second story or
reconstruction.
Glen Posusta commented that it might be worthwhile to look at an expansion of the MCC
to the west and south, which could incorporate MCC offices and support and maybe the
DMV. Then city hall could expand into some spaces previously occupied by MCC. Jeff
O'Neill noted that gym space is likely also a future need, and it might make sense to set
aside expansion to the west for that.
It was noted that the county's market value for 2015 of the Prairie Center building is
$584,000, which compares to $600,000 that the City paid for the building in 2009. It is
unknown whether it would be worthwhile to put the building up for sale.
Brian Stumpf commented that he feels strongly that the City should make every attempt
to utilize available space at the city hall and community center and, if possible, to dispose
of items that are not needed in order to create more space.
Tom Perrault asked about the area that the National Guard occupies. Jeff O'Neill
commented on the discussion that was held when they expressed an interest in occupying
a new space at some time. Under the current agreement, there is no provision for
termination of the agreement so it's likely that the City would have to continue to provide
space. Monetary commitment from the National Guard toward facilities for relocation are
not known.
Brian Stumpf suggested that staff should be given authorization to come up with a plan to
utilize space in the MCC /City Hall for accommodating more staff at city hall. He feels
that Prairie Center would be left as is for the time being with FiberNet and the Sheriff's
Office continuing to occupy the building.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes —July 13, 2015 Page 2 13
CHARLOTTE GABLER MOVED TO AUTHORIZE CITY STAFF TO PREPARE A
PLAN DESIGN TO ACCOMMODATE ADDITIONAL STAFFING NEEDS FOR
CITY HALL AND BRING BACK TO COUNCIL FOR REVIEW. GLEN POSUSTA
SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 5 -0.
4. Adjournment
TOM PERRAULT MOVED TO ADJOURN THE SPECIAL MEETING AT 6:14 P.M.
LLOYD HILGART SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 5 -0.
Recorder: Catherine M. Shuman NYvj--.*,
Approved: July 27, 2015
Attest:
y inistrator
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