Aging problem: Edwardsville Township building in disrepair

When the light fixtures need repair at the Edwardsville Township offices, someone has to go to a junkyard to get the parts.

An office building that doesn’t meet access standards and a former parsonage with a leaky roof and asbestos are presenting headaches for officials at Edwardsville Township. Years of deferred maintenance have left them with facilities that don’t meet standards, and now officials are trying to find an inexpensive solution.

When Township Supervisor Frank Miles took office, he realized that the old Hays-Mallory building adjacent to the township’s office building had problems. It had been used primarily as a rental facility for social events and for the township’s requisite public meetings, as the small office building the township shares with the county assessor’s office next door does not have a meeting room large enough to accommodate the public.

An inspection of the Hays-Mallory building revealed the presence of asbestos, a leaking roof, a kitchen that did not meet commercial grade standards and other problems. Formerly a parsonage for the long-gone St. Mary’s Church, the building had rarely been rented out in recent years since Edwardsville’s growth provided a number of alternatives for social events.

“It used to have dances and senior events, but as Edwardsville and Glen Carbon grew, the rental and use of the building went down,” Miles said.

Miles closed the Hays-Mallory building to public use, and since then the township’s public meetings have been in borrowed space at the nearby Farm Bureau.

Meanwhile, however, the township offices are also falling into disrepair. The building was constructed in the 1980s and houses 10 employees for the township and the assessor’s offices. It still has its original roof, windows, lighting fixtures and more. The light fixtures are so out of date that when they need replacing, they cannot order the parts, according to administrator Jeanne Wojcieszak — they must get the parts from a junkyard.

Miles put together a building committee and had an independent code enforcement inspection performed on both buildings. For the Hays-Mallory building, the report is nearly an inch thick, ranging from exposed wiring at the electrical panel to corroded pipes to “wood-destroying pests” and the presence of asbestos.

Miles said they determined it would be too cost-prohibitive to upgrade the Hays-Mallory building, and it didn’t make sense to do so when local restaurants, private catering halls and the city’s Wildey Theater are all available for rental in town. “Their recommendation was that the building should close,” he said.

The verdict on the township office wasn’t much more appealing. Wojcieszak said it does not meet current codes for the Americans With Disabilities Act — the ramp isn’t the right grade, the parking lot doesn’t meet standards, there’s no wheelchair-accessible counter for people coming in for business with the township or the assessor, and there are no handicapped-accessible restrooms. The roof is at the end of its life, as is the heating and cooling system and the windows.

And unlike private businesses, a governmental body cannot be grandfathered in from meeting code, Wojcieszak said.

There’s also no privacy for people dealing with sensitive issues, Wojcieszak said. For example, Edwardsville Township administers LIHEAP assistance for people in need of help with their energy bills. An applicant must sit beside a desk in the middle of the main office area, in full view of the lobby, to discuss their personal financial troubles, she said.

Miles said the estimates began at $750,000 to renovate the office building, with another $75,000 to add an elevator, required by the Americans With Disabilities Act. “And then we still wouldn’t have the space for a public meeting,” he said.

Recently, the city of Edwardsville approached Miles with a proposal for the township to share space in the city’s new public safety building. Under construction only a block away, the new public safety building will house the main Edwardsville Fire Department station and the Edwardsville Police Department, with a park and water splash pad adjacent to it.

“(Mayor Hal Patton) knew of our search for space and thought it might be an answer to some of our issues here,” Miles said.

The city presented various options for sharing the space to the township board, but Miles said the cost came in at about $1.2 million. “We appreciated the offer, and I liked it from the sense that we’d be sharing space and cooperating,” Miles said. “But a little over a million bucks was more than we could afford. … We felt that was something we could not pursue at that time.”

One thing that isn’t on the table: increasing taxes, Miles said. “We do not want to be in a position to increase people’s taxes just for a new building; that’s not realistic,” he said.

The next proposal was to sell both the current building and the Hays-Mallory building to a developer, and use the money to build a new office building in Township Park, known in Edwardsville as Airplane Park.

One slight snag: the township office and Hays-Mallory Building are near downtown, but surrounded by residential areas. Right now they are a nonconforming use under city zoning; once the township leaves, it would revert to residential zoning, unless rezoning was granted by the city, Wojcieszak said. That might not appeal to a developer.

“I think it would be a great location for new residential (construction) because it’s so close to downtown,” Miles said.

So the township put out a request for proposals, but no developers responded immediately.

“Now we’re back to, ‘What are we going to do with these buildings?’” Miles said.

They have considered leasing appropriate office space on the private market, he said, but that could cost $110,000 a year at current rates. “We don’t have that kind of money, and no one is interested in increasing people’s taxes,” Miles said. “So we’re trying to look at creative ways to deal with the issues at our offices.”

Miles said he still holds out hope that a developer might become interested, and Wojcieszak said one has recently indicated interest.

In a perfect world, Miles said, he would like to share space with another social services provider, allowing them to better coordinate the services the township provides, including financial and energy bill assistance, the parks, the assessor’s office and the township highway commissioner’s office.

“My hope would be to put us in a position to return these properties to the tax rolls, and for us to locate in some facility where we’re sharing space with another unit, or where we’re closer to seniors or a social service entity where we can share resources,” Miles said.

The fallback position would be a loan of just enough money to keep the current township office building open and operable. That’s a short-term option, in Miles’ opinion.

“We’re getting problems with water in the basement, and crossing our fingers that the roof doesn’t leak,” he said.

This story was originally published March 17, 2016 at 9:38 AM with the headline "Aging problem: Edwardsville Township building in disrepair."