After conflicting studies, Mascoutah to recheck safety of civic center building

The Mascoutah City Council unanimously agreed Monday to hire an inspector to evaluate structural repair needs at the former Leu Civic Center building after conflicting reports resulted in the contentious eviction of the nonprofit that manages it.

The building opened as Mascoutah High School in the 1930s but was repurposed for the civic center in 1978.

The center had been housed in the former Mascoutah High School building — which is still owned by the city — since it was founded. City officials told the nonprofit to vacate the property this spring after a structural report found extensive water damage and cracks in some support beams.

But a newer study commissioned by the civic center argues the building damage is cosmetic and did not warrant an evacuation.

City Manager Cody Hawkins asked for the council members’ opinions on hiring an inspector to evaluate what changes would need to be made to the building’s interior to bring it “up to code.”

Hawkins said he received a quote Monday morning for $315,000 of repairs to the building’s exterior, including a replacement parapet wall and tuckpointing the entire building.

Hawkins said it would cost roughly $15,000 and take two to three weeks to get a quote for the inside of the building.

Leu Civic Center Board Treasurer Jeremy Bearth said the city let the center use the building and covered the cost of utilities, meaning the center only had to cover maintenance costs.

Since leaving, the center has been located at 1040 W Main St., a 29,000-square-foot downgrade from the old property. The center will need to cover rent costs in addition to expansion costs if board members decide to stay in the building permanently.

Bearth said some services, like Shoot the Rock, may be on the chopping block while the organization looks for a permanent arrangement.

“[Other buildings] rarely suit both needs, the athletic and the education sides,” Bearth told the Belleville News-Democrat. “That’s one of the reasons we fight so hard for this building.”

Structural concerns

Civic center leaders were told to leave the building in March after an inspection by Columbia-based Kreher Engineering found stress cracks and extensive water damage in the building. The report also stated that three out of four vertical supports or “pilasters” on the north side of the building would not be able to support the floor beams at full capacity, as evidenced by vertical cracks.

Kreher engineers said they did not do any “destructive testing or dismantling” to inspect the building and wrote its report based on what was “readily accessible and observable” at the time of the inspection.

The Kreher report stated that they could not determine based on nondestructive assessment alone whether the pilasters were made of steel or masonry. But the report said that they were incapable of supporting the floor beams’ weight at full capacity in either condition.

But the center’s board commissioned another building inspection from Netemeyer Engineering Associates in Aviston that refuted some claims from the Kreher Engineering report.

The Netemeyer report stated that its team of engineers did “limited destructive investigation” of the pilasters cited in the previous report. Engineers found that the pilasters were made of steel encased in masonry and said the vertical cracks were cosmetic and no cause for structural concern.

The report confirms the presence of extensive water damage and a leaning parapet wall, but it argues that there is no evidence of major structural threats to the building.

The report states that it is a direct response to the report commissioned by the city.

Smith said the building flooded with 6 inches of sewer water in 2024 after a downpour brought flash flooding to Mascoutah.

A statement from the civic center said organization leaders are willing to make the building “accessible to anyone interested in participating” if they take ownership of the building.

Civic center debate

Leu Civic Center Inc. is a private nonprofit that hosts daytime and after-school extracurricular activities for Mascoutah kids, including the Shoot the Rock winter basketball league that hosts more than 200 prekindergarten through fifth-grade students annually.

Since the beginning of current director Jenna Smith’s tenure, the center has also provided homeschool resources and Individualized Education Program consultations in an effort to supplement education resources lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the Mascoutah City Council put the building up for sale last month, Leu Civic Center Inc. bid $500 and was the only party to make an offer. Three out of five council members voted to sell it to the organization, but the purchase needed a supermajority to pass.

Council members Michael Voegele, Jack Weyant and Steve Beimfohr voted in favor of the sale. Voegele said he sees the building as a liability for city government.

“If the organization is willing to take it on and fix it, I think it’s a win-win for taxpayers,” Voegele said.

Council member Mike Baker voted against the sale with Mayor Walter “Wally” Battas. He said he’s concerned that the building is not compliant with accessibility standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act and thinks the price set by civic center leaders was insufficient.

“That’s not a city’s responsibility to find space for a nonprofit — it would be like us looking for a space for a church,” Baker said. “I’ve been heavily involved at the center. Some of the programs they do are fantastic. (But) I make no apologies for my ‘no’ vote.”

Mascoutah city service upgrades

The debate over the civic center building is part of a larger restructuring of city properties and services in Mascoutah.

The council reviewed plans Monday to replace the fire station and move emergency medical services out of the first floor of City Hall, which it shares with the Mascoutah Police Department.

Beimfohr said the council was approached by FGM Architects last year with a proposal for a $25 million first responders complex at the former site of the Leu Civic Center and a new civic center facility near Scheve Park. Beimfohr said the council rejected the proposal because of the price tag.

”What we’re trying to get accomplished is twofold,” Beimfohr said. “We need to make a final decision on what we’re going to do with that civic center building right now… Then, I think we will proceed with upgrading.”

”The cost estimate from them was half a million dollars just to tear it down,” Beimfohr said. “I would rather take that money and put it into the building if it’s going to remain city-owned.”

Council member Jack Weyant said he worries the civic center property is not large enough to house an EMS center for Mascoutah’s growing population in the long term.

“I don’t want the next council or the next citizens who are living in Mascoutah to have to put up with everything we just had to go through,” Weyant said. “I suggested that we purchase a piece of ground — which we can (do) probably cheaper — then tear that building down and level everything out and start building facilities.”

Hawkins said Monday that he is currently scouting locations for the new EMS department.

Councilman Michael Baker said the city began considering a restructuring after the former city manager assessed the city’s properties and found that some services could be distributed more efficiently.

The city government sent out a survey this spring to ask Mascoutah residents what city services they prioritize for upgrades. Results from nearly a thousand residents show fire and emergency medical services ranked first, followed by the pool, recreation center, police and city hall, according to a city news release.

The city council is currently planning for a more than $5 million renovation of the city pool slated to reopen by next summer and is looking into building an accessible playground at Scheve Park, Battas said.

Municipal administrative code in Illinois states local police departments should have separate cells or detention rooms for adults and juveniles. Right now, Baker said the department has no cells and handcuffs detainees to a bar on the first floor of City Hall.

The council also heard a pitch from St. Louis contractor S. M. Wilson & Co. for the construction of a new fire station at the meeting. The firm was previously hired to build Mascoutah High School in 2007 and recently built fire stations in Godfrey and Highland.

This story was originally published July 7, 2026 at 12:42 PM.