Decorah City Council continues to mull municipal building’s future

By Denise Lana,

The Decorah City Council is still undecided on whether to remodel or raze and rebuild the facility which serves as Decorah’s Fire and Police Station as well as its city hall. City staff have said the building was constructed almost seven decades ago and is in need of numerous costly repairs and renovations to bring the facility up to code.

Brunton Engineering and Construction firm was hired by the city in late 2023 to perform a walkthrough and inspection of the building — a resulting 48-page evaluation outlined deficiencies, including foundation cracks in the fire station, asbestos and numerous ceiling and window leaks. City Manager Travis Goedken previously prioritized the listed deficiencies and estimated the total price tag for necessary work was around $2 million. A new building design was submitted, but at a cost of $15 million, the council asked Brunton to see if they could come up with a new plan at a lesser cost.

At Monday night’s city council meeting, representatives with Brunton presented two new concepts for a completely new build and renovation of the current building, both having a cost of roughly $10 million.

“I think what we are looking at is a decision that is ultimately not going to make anyone ultimately happy,” said Councilman Steven Zittergruen, who expressed opposition to a new building in favor of reviewing the numbers and seeing if the city could decrease the $2 million renovation costs to less than $1 million.

Councilman Kirsten Olsen felt the building would likely present more issues in the future.

“Two major issues — the roof and settling that caused major damage to the sides,” said Olsen said. “Even if you fixed those, you are going to have major issues down the road.  I think we are going to end up with more problems down the road and spend a lot more money.”

Full article available here in the February 27 Decorah Leader.

In content house ad Banner
Friest & Associates Banner

Submit A Comment

Fill out the form to submit a comment. All comments require approval by our staff before it is displayed on the website.

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comment
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments