Le Center City Hall to receive remodel

With the goal of making the Le Center City Hall more user friendly to staff and city residents, the Le Center City Council approved a proposal to remodel the building’s administrative and office spaces.

The City Council awarded the project to WEB Construction on Tuesday, July 9 after the firm submitted a bid to remodel the city hall at a cost of $84,584. The Mankato-based firm was the lowest bidder for the project.

A key focus of the remodel is to remove a large concrete safe roughly six feet wide, seven feet tall and eight and half feet long which rests near the deputy clerk’s office and replace it with a second reception desk where an office assistant will be able to assist residents who come into the building while the deputy clerk is away.

“That will help with coverage when people are taking breaks, or at lunch or are gone the whole day,” said City Administrator Dan Evans. “Right now, how it works is if our deputy clerk is away from her desk at city hall, Tara [Nusbaum], our office assistant has to come out from the back cubicles and walk back to do the services. We figured we would put two reception-type area desks there that would be better for the public coming in for services.”

Beyond furnishing a new reception desk for the city hall, the renovation aims to upgrade the entryway and offices with new carpeting, LED lights, and apply a new coat of paint to the walls. The remodel would also serve to remove asbestos which can be found underneath the carpet of the administrative office, the concrete safe and the server room.

“There’s a safety aspect to it too to get that asbestos removed out of city hall,” said Evans.

To finance the project, the city plans to dig into its share of federal stimulus dollars from the American Rescue Plan. Evans estimated the city would have approximately $56,000 to contribute toward the renovation.

A starting time has yet to be determined for the remodel, but the city plans to have the project completed by the end of the year.

While the remodel is ongoing, Evans said a containment barrier will be erected around the worksite. The deputy clerk would move to the office space across the hall to continue serving members of the public, while Evans would likely move into the Police Department’s current office spaces. The Police Department is already planning to vacate their offices at city hall to relocate to the new police department site at 200 E. Bowler Street.