In a presentation to the Ellenville Village Board, the engineering firm of Barton & Loguidice offered its building plans and a timetable for completion of the municipality’s new home, the old Provident Bank building. The engineers are aiming to have the facility up and running by Labor Day but the village is hoping to have the building operational by the community’s Blueberry Festival, generally held at the end of August. The price for these renovations is expected to be less than $500,000, which will bring the village’s project cost for its new home to roughly $1.5 million.

The plans call for use of two of the building’s five main floors as well as the basement or ground floor. The ground floor will house the village’s police force, an employee lounge and storage room for village records.

The first floor, which will undergo the heaviest renovations, will include the court clerk’s office, the judge’s chambers and court records. It will also include a small conference room and a larger court room/meeting room, with a 99-person capacity, which would house the village’s court proceedings and other public meetings.

The second floor will house the village’s administrative offices such as the building department, village clerk, the mayor’s office and the police chief’s office.

Floors three through five are currently vacant but Village Manager Elliott Auerbach claims that he has already had people inquire as to the availability of those upper floors.

Auerbach believes that there can and should be a marriage of public and private use for the building, saying, “There is a need in the community for first-class office space.”

He also argued that, in addition to executive offices, the available office space would be ideal for those professions that require close proximity to municipal offices – surveyors, land appraisers, etc.

In addition to the revenues gained from those rents the village would hope to offset its initial expenditures for the building through the sale of the current village hall located on Route 209 as well as its return to the municipality’s tax rolls. The building has been appraised and the village expects it to sell for somewhere between $300,000 and $400,000

Years were spent trying to decide which was the best alternative for the village. Citing cramped working conditions and being the subject of a lawsuit brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prompted the village to consider a number of options including the adding of an elevator to its existing facility and constructing a new building in the village’s downtown on Center Street.

And while the Provident Bank building seemed the most desirable, the village was also slowed by its attempts to bring the Town of Wawarsing in as a tenant or partner. The town, feeling cramped in its Canal Street home, has repeatedly chosen not to accept the village’s offer citing cost concerns and the fact that it has an entire floor that is not in use for purposes other than record keeping. Last Monday, the town met with several architects to review proposals for renovations of their building.

This may have led some Wawarsing councilpersons to reconsider the idea of moving and accepting the village’s invitation. Sources suggest that there have been phone calls made from the town to the village expressing an interest in possibly starting a new dialogue. When asked to confirm this, Town Supervisor James Dolaway said that while he had made no attempts to contact the village about the matter, he was unable to speak for his board members.

If that were to happen, it might be a tight fit for both municipalities as the building, which measures roughly 23,000 square feet in size, is considerably smaller once all of the space devoted to “common space” is removed. Once all of the building’s bathrooms, stairwells and other common areas are subtracted, the structure has roughly 16,000 square feet of usable space.

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