Construction of new $2 million City Hall in DeWitt to start in April

DEWITT - Construction of a new $2 million city hall and police department building in the city could start by April.

The new 10,500-square-foot building is nearly double the size of DeWitt's existing city hall and police department on East Main Street, which dates back to 1956.

City Administrator Dan Coss said city officials began conducting a needs assessment of the current city hall two years ago. Space in the 5,500-square-foot building is limited, he said.

It's home to the police department's 13 full and part-time employees and the city's other six employees, Coss said. 

"We're running out of storage space," he said. "We're running out of usable space for our staff."

Initially city officials hoped to add a 2,000-square-foot addition to the building, but estimated costs for the project led to a discussion about a new building, Coss said.

"Cost estimates started getting upwards of what a new building would cost," he said. "A new building made more sense."

Coss said city officials held a series of public meetings before deciding to budget $2.5 million for the construction of a new city hall.

The new building will be constructed on the same six-acre parcel the city owns on East Main Street. 

Monday night the City Council approved a bid for the building's construction for less than that, at just over $2 million, from the Parish Corporation of Lansing.

The bid does not include demolition of the current building. That will happen after the new city hall is complete, Coss said. Staff will work out of the current building during its construction.

The new building will include a 2,400-square-foot community room that will be utilized for city recreation programming. It will also be made available to community groups for local events.

"There's a shortage of that type of space inside the city," Coss said.

Construction of the new city hall is expected to be complete by November.

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Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at (517) 528-2075 or rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.