Spirit Lake’s City Hall in need of improvement

SPIRIT LAKE – Mayor Roxy Martin won’t be surprised if she gets a call one day saying Spirit Lake’s City Hall has gone up in flames.

The Fire Department’s been called to City Hall and the adjoining police station several times now because of burning smells, but nobody’s been able to sniff out the source.

Martin suspects it’s something in the electrical system, much of which is knob-and-tube construction and cloth-covered wire dating back to the 1930s, when the city purchased the building for $28.

Her office and that of Police Chief Wiley Ronnenberg used to be garages.

With the cosmetic improvements and repairs that have been made over the years, it’s hard to tell there used to be a firetruck parked where Martin’s desk now sits. There are a lot of issues in the building that aren’t visible to people who visit City Hall.

Like the dirt cellar that floods during wet weather and breeds black mold.

The wires in the attic that have been chewed by rodents.

The radon – a colorless, odorless radioactive and cancer-causing gas – that’s measuring over the safe limit and is especially high in City Clerk Barbara Brown’s office.

It’s time, Martin says, for the town to begin looking into a way to replace the aging building.

Spirit Lake’s City Council last month approved spending $2,880 for Paul Matthews Architects to conduct a needs assessment for a new City Hall and police station.

Martin and Ronnenberg don’t expect to be surprised by the results of the study.

“We really need it,” Martin said. The study is just the first step in making a new City Hall a reality, Martin said.

She doesn’t expect to have a new office during her tenure as mayor.

This is planning for future generations in the growing town, she said, and giving residents a City Hall they can be proud of.

“This is a joke,” she said. “It’s an embarrassment.”

For many who are new to town, City Hall is one of the first places they visit to find information about the community and sign up for sewer and water services.

“It’s way past due to have something done,” said Ronnenberg, who jokes that he’d double the size of his office in the existing building if he tore out the small bathroom in the Police Department and put a “port-a-john” out back.

The police station is so small that Ronnenberg doesn’t have anywhere to conduct interviews. He uses the garage, or Martin vacates her office so he can use it. Records and evidence have had to be stored off-site for lack of room.

The city is hoping to build a new City Hall and police station somewhere other than the current site on Maine Street. Martin is hoping someone might have some land to donate.

To avoid bonding for new construction, the city is working with the Panhandle Area Council and others to see if a new building can be constructed and then leased back to the city.

The city wants to build a new City Hall and police station that will last at least 20 years and handle the growth that’s been projected for the town, which currently has about 1,700 residents.

Martin said several residents identified fixing up the town’s Maine Street and the Police Department and City Hall as priorities in a recent community survey.