The town of Crothersville may be another step closer to finding a new home when the Methodist church approved the sale of their old annex on East Howard Street over the weekend.
The church had offered the masonry structure to the town for $55,000; however, the average of two appraisals of the real estate put the price at $41,200 which the town offered.
State law prohibits governmental entities from paying more than the average of two independent appraisals.
At last week’s Crothersville Town Council meeting, council president Ardell Mitchell announced that the church congregation was to meet on Sunday to consider approving the sale.
Mitchell provided council members with some of his proposed designs for remodeling the structure which is just across the alley from the current town hall.
“I’ve tried to put some definition into the concepts of what we need in a town hall,” he said.
“Some people have said that the (Methodist) annex is too small for our town hall, but it is larger than the old town hall and that housed not only town utilities and a public meeting room, but also the police department. Now that the police department has their own building, it is my opinion that the annex will be large enough for town government and utility office to function.
Mitchell, a project manager for Harmon Construction, told the council that his estimates for renovations which include an ADA compliant restroom and room partitions would be around $7,000. “But that does not include any electrical work or added energy efficency to the building,” he said.
“Even if those bring the total to $10,000 for renovations, we would still have under $55,000 is a new town office facility,” said Mitchell. “It would then be my suggestion to sell the surplus town-owned real estate (the old town hall property on West Howard St, the old water treatment plant on North Kovener St. and the old town storage barn property between Kovener Street and the railroad) and we conceivably could have zero cost in a newly renovated town hall,” he said.
The former town hall on West Howard Street was damaged in high winds several years ago and later was demolished because of structural integrity issues.
