Facelift planned for east wall of Town Hall

by Melissa Martin

May 7 township trustees meeting

Hinckley Township trustees voted unanimously to award a $92,000 contract to R2K Construction Inc. to renovate the east wall of the former fire station and make the building more energy efficient.

The decision comes in the wake of several failed attempts to hire a contractor in recent years to modify a portion of Town Hall, located at 1410 Ridge Rd., from fire station bays to a community room.

That portion of the building is no longer used as a fire station after the township’s new fire station, which cost $1.6 million to build, was opened in 2016.

In addition to bids being rejected because they came back higher than anticipated, bidding was also stalled along the way by a paperwork error.

Trustee Jack Swedyk said the township is looking to remove the doors to the former fire station bays, which he said are not energy efficient and make that part of town hall expensive to heat in the winter.  

In addition to replacing the bay doors with a wall, the proposed project will also include the installation of energy-efficient windows, Swedyk said.

The only other company to bid on the project was Apollo Construction, whose base bid of $109,000, was $17,000 more than the one trustees accepted.

In other news, Fire Chief Jestin Grossenbaugh was planning to pick up the fire department’s newest fire vehicle from Michigan later that week. The township purchased the new tanker for $740,000 approximately a year ago.

Grossenbaugh said the township is planning to purchase a new ambulance this year; however, it will take three years for the manufacturer to build the vehicle. He said township officials have already met with several potential manufacturers.

The anticipated cost of the ambulance is $350,000, Grossenbaugh said. The ambulance is expected to have a gasoline engine rather than diesel due to emissions requirements.

Grossenbaugh said his department is processing the necessary paperwork for the county prosecutor’s office for review. Once the paperwork is approved, he said, the information would be presented to the board of trustees.

He said the department anticipated discussing the purchase with trustees as part of the May 21 meeting. ∞