FORTVILLE — The Vernon Township trustee’s office is moving next door to give its growing operation the space it needs, get other property it owns back on the tax rolls and bring assets closer together.
The township plans to sell its current trustee’s office at 700 W. Broadway St. in Fortville and move operations into the building on the adjoining property to the east that it also owns at 602 Vitality Drive, which is just west of the township’s Fortville fire station.
Operations have been in the 5,190-square foot Broadway building since 2019, after moving from the township’s much smaller longtime downtown Fortville location, which the township sold to make its first payment on its new fire station.
“It’s pretty bare bones,” said Florence May, Vernon Township trustee. “We’ve not invested any money in it because we understood it was really a temporary move.”
The Vitality Drive building is 8,748 square feet, about half of which was formerly a Hancock Health medical office while the rest of the space remains an unfinished shell.
Vernon Township bought the building housing the current trustee’s office, former medical office building, land behind it and land where its current Fortville fire station stands during former trustee James Nolte’s administration as officials worked to determine the best place for the new fire station.
Township officials and employees plan to move into the former medical side of the Vitality Drive property by the end of the year. Completing the unfinished portion is estimated to cost $400,000 to $525,000. The minimum bid price determined by appraisals for the current office on Broadway is $585,000.
May estimates the unfinished portion of the Vitality Drive building will be completed in the first quarter of 2022, depending on what happens with construction material costs, which are starting to fall after skyrocketing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. After it’s finished, the township will move its offices into that space, and lease the other portion for medical, dental or laboratory purposes.
“It will allow us to set it up for what we actually need,” May said of the township’s future office space.
The new space will accommodate the trustee, deputy trustee, township assistance clerk, administrative clerk, fire chief, deputy fire chief/fire marshal, emergency medical services chief, fire admin and training officer while also providing meeting space.
Stacy Nielsen, deputy township trustee, said at a recent township board meeting that the township could always take on the entire property if it needs to one day.
“I think the nice part is, obviously we own the building,” she said. “There’s nothing that ever prevents us from expanding to the other side. If we begin to burst out of the seams, then we have the flexibility.”
May said the township considered investing in its current space to achieve its needs. Appraisals performed on both buildings indicated the township could sell the current office for a profit, allowing for money to go toward the fire department.
“However, if we sold the medical building, we would be under the investment that was made in that building, and that was a little bit of a surprise to us,” she added.
Selling the current property will allow it to start generating property taxes once again, May continued. And if the township is able to eventually lease the medical side of the Vitality Drive building to a for-profit entity, it would be taxed accordingly as well.
“That would put one and a half out of the two buildings back on the tax rolls, and that is the goal,” she said.
Another benefit to the move is being next door to the fire station, May said. Additionally, several acres of the township-owned land behind the future office will be turned into a fire training ground. The township’s community garden, which contributes to area food pantries, would move to that land as well.
“It just really works in terms of bringing all those assets together,” May said.
The township is accepting bids for its current office property, which the township board will review before selecting one in August. More information on the sale of the property is available at vernontownship.us/property-sale.
