Contracts for work on new Forreston Village Hall OK’d

FORRESTON — Forreston Village Board trustees have approved spending $41,500 on upgrades for the new village hall.

Two contracts were unanimously approved during the board’s April 18 meeting: a $27,000 contract with Absolute Maintenance, out of German Valley, for general construction — walls, ceilings, etc. — and a $14,500 contract with Zettle Brothers for adding outlets and related electric work.

“I’m still trying to beef up that number, because you go in there and cut a couple of them I didn’t like where they were going to run the wire along the wall,” Trustee Gary Buss said in regards to the Zettle Brothers contract. “I thought, ‘If we have to, we’re going to wait until we get situated,’ and if we have to bring them in to do a few [so be it]. But that would be in that price range anyway. I did kind of give them the go-ahead to start, at their leisure, putting that in.”

Village officials closed on the purchase of 301 N. Walnut St. — formerly Green’s Motor Company — on Jan. 25 for $155,000, according to Ogle County property tax records. The property was purchased outright; no mortgage or loans were necessary, Village President Mark Metzger said in a previous interview.

The plan is to allocate space for village board and town hall meetings, the village clerk, the police department, an office for the public works supervisor and, possibly, an office for the village president, Metzger said.

Village Board members formed a New Building Committee tasked with figuring out how operations should be laid out in the new space, what changes need to be made to the building and the budget for associated construction, Metzger said.

Committee members are Village Trustees Katie Kalina, Brittany Busker, Buss and Vickye Norris.