Breathing room: Fredericktown municipal building renovations create more space for council meetings

The village of Fredericktown was established in 1807, but its current municipal building was not constructed until 1958.

It served the village well, housing the police department, fire department, emergency medical services and administrative offices, village council president Rick Lanuzza told the Mount Vernon News.

But it was a tight fit.

“You would come into the front door, and there was a countertop," said Lanuzza. “Behind that countertop was a table where council had their meetings. They would drag folding chairs out as people would come into meetings.”

Recent events paved the way for a renovation and more space at the municipal building.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the fire department, emergency medical services and fire department moved to a new facility on Columbus Road. The municipal building garage, where police cars, ambulances and fire trucks were kept, was then converted into space for a senior center.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the seniors were unable to meet in person and requested the city to release them from their lease of the space, Lanuzza said. The city complied and launched a $110,000 renovation of the former garage space.

“Now that they are out of their lease, it has been turned into the council chambers (and) the mayor’s office, and the seniors will still use it for their monthly meetings,” the councilmember said.

The renovation project is not quite complete but is close. The council could meet in the new space for the first time in September, said Lanuzza.

The city sold a building it owned across the street from the municipal building where the mayor’s office had been previously located, Lanuzza said. That sale generated $40,000, which has been applied to the costs of municipal building renovation.

Federal CARES Act funding to help communities during the COVID-19 pandemic is also indirectly paying for the renovations, he said.

“We received CARES Act money last year,” Lanuzza said. “Some of the CARES money was appropriated to the police department for some of their line items. The original money that had been appropriated for those items was allocated toward the remodeling project.”

The new space will make it easier for members of the public to be involved in village government, Lanuzza said.

"People can attend the meetings where, before, they felt they couldn't cram into a tiny little room," he said. "Now they've got a big, spacious room."