Weston set to construct new town hall - Century-old school building will be razed to accommodate plan
By LeAnn R. Ralph, Reporter
Monday, July 16, 2007 10:35 AM CDT
TOWN OF WESTON The more than 100-year-old Weston Town Hall most likely will be destroyed within the next month to make room for a new town hall.
The Weston Town Board voted Wednesday evening to demolish the existing town hall and proceed with plans to build a new town hall, awarding a bid to Pax Building Service for the project.
Randy Werner, township resident, took issue with the exact motion made at the Town of Weston’s last annual meeting in April concerning a new town hall.
He told the board, “I thought they voted to discuss building a new town hall, not to go ahead and build a new town hall.”
About 20 people attended Wednesday’s meeting, and several others in the audience said that they, too, thought the motion at the annual meeting was to discuss building a new town hall.
When Werner asked about the minutes from the annual meeting, town clerk Pat Pickerign said she did not have those minutes with her.
“It was approved at the annual meeting to go forward with a new building,” said Brenda Ziehme, town chair.
Petition
Werner presented a petition to the town board signed by 43 township residents asking the board to investigate the cost of renovating the existing town hall and bringing it up to code.
Many people in the township would like to save the old school building or find another use for it, he said.
Weston school was moved to its present location in the early 1900s, noted Bob Werner, township resident.
Only 43 people signed the petition, but the township has 325 homesteads, Ziehme said.
“This is not even one-third of the people who are interested in saving the town hall,” she said.
Building a new town hall was on the agenda for the annual meeting, Pickerign said.
“That was the time for people to express their opinion
I personally don’t see where this petition has validity,” she said.
Pickerign also pointed out that the town board was under no obligation to listen to comments from people attending Wednesday’s meeting.
When the town board allows township residents to make comments at a meeting, it is a privilege and not a right, she added.
Annual meeting
“People voted at the annual meeting to tear down (the old town hall) and to build a new town hall,” said Craig Lecheler, town supervisor. “Everybody gets a vote at the annual meeting
that’s when it should have been brought up.”
He pointed out that at the annual meeting, the town board presented pictures of what the new town hall would look like.
“The motion was to move on. Everybody voted to move on,” Lecheler said.
People at the annual meeting voted to “look into” a 40x40-foot building and to get estimates on the construction cost, not to go ahead with building a new town hall, said township resident Wayne Webinger.
Werner noted he had suggested that the town board begin saving money five years ago to build a new town hall and also had asked the board at that time to look into what it would cost to bring the school building up to code.
“They never looked into redoing the building
the board never checked out both avenues,” Webinger said.
Another location
In what appeared to be an about-face, Lecheler suggested buying land elsewhere for the new town hall.
“Everyone wants to save this building
we could buy a couple of acres and build the town hall there
I would rather buy land elsewhere and build,” he said.
Werner suggested that the existing town hall could be donated to the Dunn County Historical Society. He also wondered if township residents could be given the option of finding a way to move the school building.
New town hall
The new town hall will be a 40x40-foot steel building with a wood post frame that includes an office, bathrooms and a kitchen and that can also be used as a community center, Ziehme said.
The kitchen and restrooms will be of benefit to election workers, she noted.
The existing town hall is approximately 24x32 feet in size.
Bob Werner wondered if an office building with a kitchen and bathrooms could be built onto the existing town hall.
If a new section is attached, the whole building must be brought up to code, Ziehme said.
Another township resident wondered about constructing a separate small building with an office, kitchen and bathrooms that would not be attached to the existing town hall.
“There’s not enough room on the lot,” Lecheler said.
The Weston Town Hall is located at the top of a steep slope within the unincorporated village of Weston.
The town board wants to build a 40x40 building “that will last for 100 years,” Lecheler said.
Ownership
Another issue concerning the Weston Town Hall revolves around ownership of the land and the building.
At a previous board meeting, township resident Bill Stoeklen said the township did not own the land or the building and that, in fact, both belonged to him.
The ownership issue involves the consolidation of school districts in the 1960s.
The Menomonie school district issued a quit-claim deed to the township, although a “right of reversion” clause may have been in place at the time, Stoeklen claimed.
Legal opinion
Ziehme read a letter at Wednesday’s meeting from the township’s attorney, Bill Thedinga of the law firm Weld, Riley, Prenn and Ricci out of Eau Claire.
According to the letter, in Thedinga’s opinion, the township holds the deed to the building and to the land “free and clear.”
The letter also said Thedinga had sent a copy of the information to Stoeklen’s attorney, John Higley, although during a telephone conversation Thursday morning, Stoeklen said Higley had not received a copy of the information so Higley was unable to give an opinion to Stoeklen on the issue.
Done deal
The Weston Town Board approved a motion to put the letter, a copy of the deed and a copy of the title report in a safety deposit box to show that the property belongs to the Town of Weston.
“This matter is closed,” Ziehme declared.
The town board also approved a motion to move forward with a new building.
In addition, the town board approved a motion to award the contract for the new town hall to Pax Building Services in the amount of $118,800, contingent upon the township receiving financing for the building project.
Construction on the new town hall is expected to begin in mid-August.
“I didn’t know it would be such a big controversy to destroy (the old town hall). I’m not from around here,” Ziehme said.
Soil contamination
After the meeting adjourned, Werner said he believed the town board intended to burn down the old Weston school to make room for the new town hall.
He also noted that in years past, previous town board members had said the township could never build a new town hall on the site because of soil contamination from the salt/sand that the township had at one time stored outside to use on the roads in the winter.
Werner said, too, that several wells in the area were contaminated with chloride.
Stoeklen confirmed Thursday morning that his well had been tested several years ago and that the results of the test showed his well contained nearly three times the state’s legal limit for chloride.
Testing revealed that the town hall’s well contained nearly four times the accepted limit, he added.
The Weston Town Board planned to meet at 8 a.m. Saturday for a workshop to discuss the particulars of building the new town hall.
LeAnn Ralph can be reached at leann.ralph@lee.net |
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