By Donnelly Clare

Leaders from the Town of Hull say they’re prepping for construction of the town’s new municipal building.

Last July residents in Hull approved borrowing $600,000 for remodeling and expansion of the building, which is expected to more than double in size. The current municipal building can only hold about 50 people; the remodeled building is expected to hold about 150.

Fond du Lac-based SCS Builders has been hired for the project.

“They’ll have to thaw the ground out a bit before working, but they’ll absorb that cost,” said Town of Hull Board Member Dave Pederson. “The contractor really wants to get started on the work.”

Pederson added the reconstructed building is expected to cost about $580,000, which includes new furniture, office equipment and computers.

“The office will remain open like it is now, but we’ll have an alternate entrance on the east side of the building because the front doors will closed off,” he added. Business otherwise will be conducted in the office as usual, he said.

Town of Hull Chairman John Holdridge was not available Friday for comment, but Pederson said the board has been tossing around the idea of remodeling the building for several years.

“I’ve been co-chairing the committee and we’ve gone through a lot in that time,” Pederson said. “We talked about remodeling the firehouse and the town garage as well as the municipal building at one point. It just got to be too big a project, too expensive.”

Pederson said town staff has been moving furniture and storing certain items to make room for the construction. While no official start date has been set, he said the work would begin “sometime in March”.