County board eyes building purchase
County board eyes building purchase
By CHRISTOPHER DIEM, Journal Staff Writer
MARQUETTE - The County Board of Commissioners will discuss the purchase of the old Ishpeming Community Federal Credit Union at its Committee of the Whole meeting tonight.
The building will most likely be used to house the Ishpeming court of the 96th District Court.
Purchase price of the building is $175,000 with renovation costs estimated at $293,000. The money for buying the building will come from the land acquisition fund and the renovation costs can be funded through the Public Improvement Fund’s space needs project.
The 5,200-square-foot building at 215 W. Hematite Dr. is located across the street from the Ishpeming Police Department. It was built in 1989 and has 19 parking spaces, a public entrance and a drive-through window.
On June 6, the Board of Commissioners approved the purchase of a building to house the Ishpeming District Court. Commissioners looked at the costs of keeping the court in Ishpeming for 20 years and agreed that owning a building would be more cost effective than leasing over this time frame.
The ICFCU proposal was one of six the county received in response to a request for proposals to house the Ishpeming court. After a review by county staff, judges of the 96th District Court, a commissioner work group and an architect, the ICFCU proposal was rated the highest.
Since the building exceeds the 3,000-square-foot recommendation in the Request for Proposal, the additional space may be used by other county departments or leased to other government agencies.
In other action, the board will hear a report from the County Road Commission.
The road commission has been lobbying the townships and the cities in the county to support putting a county-wide road millage on the November ballot.
“We’re going to go over the county-wide millage issue with (the county board). Kind of where the road commission and our township relations committee is at in terms of where we’re at in the process... what the next step is,” said Anne Giroux, director of finance and human resources at the road commission.
The board meets at 6:30 p.m. in Room 231 of the Henry A. Skewis Annex.
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