Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Shawano officials and staff expect to hold a kick-off meeting soon with a consultant hired to do a city space needs assessment that will address whether a new building is needed to house City Hall and the Shawano Municipal Utilities offices.
The Common Council last month approved retaining Berners Schober Associates Inc. of Green Bay to do the assessment at a cost of $26,500.
City Administrator Brian Knapp said the assessment isn’t intended to produce a design for a new building, but to take inventory of existing space constraints at City Hall and SMU and make recommendations for addressing them.
Council members at last month’s meeting said they wanted to meet with the firm and give their input. That meeting hasn’t happened yet, Knapp said, but Berners Schober has been gathering basic information about existing city office space in the meantime.
The assessment idea was put forward by SMU, which has been eyeing its future space needs for several years, particularly as its storage needs grow.
Knapp said the assessment would address growing space needs into the future, but there are already some needs on the immediate horizon.
The city is advertising for a new finance director post and a zoning code enforcement officer, though at present there isn’t any spare office space for them.
Another consideration is the City Hall roof, which is in need of some repairs, and whether it would be financially prudent to invest in a new roof for the building at this point.
Primarily, however, combining city and SMU offices in a new building — if that ends up being the recommendation — would increase efficiency and better serve the customers, Knapp said.
Knapp divides his time between City Hall and SMU, and the plan is for the new finance director to do that as well.
Recommendations are expected for the council to discuss by this fall or by the end of the year at the latest, Knapp said.