The Village of Innsbrook will contract with Hankins Construction to build its new village hall. The bid was awarded at a special board of trustees meeting on the afternoon of Aug. 27. 

Hankins Construction was the lowest of seven bidders, submitting a contract for $870,600 to construct the new, 2,000-square-foot building. 

The new hall is supposed to include a larger meeting room, additional parking, a records room and an administrative office. 

The village has also contracted with Cochran Engineering to design the plans for the hall and other administrative tasks related to the construction of the new building. 

Joe McGowan, with Cochran, was on hand at the meeting to provide his recommendation on the bids, and provided a vote of confidence for Hankins. 

“I qualified Hankins’ bid, I looked at all the paperwork, all the paperwork was in order, I called two references. We have two projects going on with them right now so I have personal knowledge of how they are on a project, … My recommendation would be to award the project to Hankins,” said McGowan. 

There has been controversy surrounding the village’s decision to move forward with the new hall, and at the instruction of the board, McGowan also considered what the potential cost of renovating the current building would be. 

It had already been discussed that the Innsbrook Corporation had offered to sell the building to the village for $300,000 according to Board Chairman Dan Reuter. McGowan estimated there would be an additional $650,000 in construction costs to bring the current building up to the specifications required. 

These changes included improvements to the building’s septic system, expanding and improving the parking lot, and bringing the interior and exterior of the building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

“We’d have to make whatever entrances are here accessible, and even though these say they’ve got the little handicapped symbol, they’re not. They don’t meet ADA standards for accessibility,” said McGowan. 

In the end the necessary renovations to the current village hall along with the cost to purchase the property would outweigh the costs to construct the new building. 

“It’s going to cost more than what we’re going to pay for the brand new facility that’s larger and has more available parking,” said McGowan. “So my recommendation would be that would not be a smart, economical decision.”

The board also had to make a decision on two alternate bids provided by Hankins that did not include some other improvements to the property. The first removed a cupola to light the parking lot from the design and the second was for decorative wood paneling behind the dais in the new building. 

The removal of those two items from the bid would have decreased the cost of construction by $16,500. 

“The base bid, which would include the cupola and the paneling behind the dais, is something we ought to do now,” said Reuter. “We’re looking at getting something done that would probably need to be entertained down the road.”

The other board members were in agreement with Reuter, with trustee John Simon asking for assurance that the additions were not unnecessary expenses, first, asking if the additions were “overly ostentatious.”

Reuter said they were not and the award of the full bid for the new village hall to Hankins Construction was unanimously approved.