by Nathan Boddy
The Hamilton City Council had a busy schedule at their regular meeting on Tuesday, August 20. The meeting began with a brief presentation by the Bitterroot Humane Association, which highlighted some of their community outreach programs before asking Mayor Dominic Farrenkopf to proclaim “Dogust” to be the unofficial birthday month of all shelter dogs. Dogust is a widely recognized program developed to raise awareness about sheltered animals, and recognizes that birth dates of sheltered animals are often difficult or impossible to ascertain.
Following staff and mayoral reports, the council was given a brief presentation on the Preliminary Architectural Report (PAR) developed to highlight options for the city’s old town hall. Crystal Herzog and Paul Filicetti of A&E Design gave the presentation, which highlighted the process that the city followed in order to determine the best and most desirable use for the building. The building itself had most recently been used as the town’s fire station until the newly constructed fire station on the corner of Foxfield and Skeels was put into use late last year.
The historic building located at 175 South 3rd opened in 1906 and served as the town’s fire station, library and city hall. The library moved into the Carnegie building (its current location) in 1916, and the city offices moved to the Bedford Building in 1990.
By 2020, however, the fire station was proving itself to be inadequately sized for modern fire fighting equipment and crew. Fire Chief Brad Mohn told the Bitterroot Star at the time that the building had “served its purpose,” but that costly modifications were being required of both the building and equipment in order for operations to continue at the location. These difficulties, combined with the ever increasing emergency needs of a growing Hamilton, resulted in the new fire station and abandonment of 175 South 3rd. The vacating of the building, consequently, has given rise to opportunities for new usage. The PAR is the first step in identifying what those opportunities are.
A&E explained that they had completed an architectural review of existing conditions and a site assessment. Along with their efforts, a steering committee was able to narrow the possible alternatives to three potential options. Each of the three possible outcomes took into account the future usage of not only the historic building, but also the town’s current city hall location and the adjacent Bitterroot Public Library. Ultimately, public outreach and analysis narrowed the scope to a preferred alternative for the site.
Planning Director Matthew Rohrbach explained to the councilors that the City had taken advantage of Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s Brownfields Program funds in order to pay for the PAR. He also told the council that the presentation of the PAR was informational, and no decision was being asked of them at present time.
As explained by the presentation, the preferred alternative for the site is the City Hall/Library co-location alternative. Having received nearly half of the votes from public participation, this alternative would see the building once again become city hall, while also providing for an expansion of the existing library and a connection of the two buildings. The development would involve removal of the garage bays, excavation of a basement and vacation of the alley between the buildings. The newly constructed link between city hall and the library would allow for increased access through a new stairway and elevator to service higher floors, in addition to expanded public space.
The PAR argues that the co-location alternative presents several benefits, including keeping the historic property in City ownership and recreating the town’s original city hall. The option may also drive increased foot traffic closer to downtown businesses, while also allowing the city to consider other uses for the current city hall location at 223 South 3rd Street. In regards to the Bitterroot Public Library, the PAR states, “The Library expansion space is not currently programmed, but provides a target square footage number, as recommended in the Bitterroot Public Library Community and Facility Needs Assessment, Final Report, dated May 2023.”
Following the presentation by A&E, the councilors asked a series of questions about the PAR. Naturally, the estimated cost of the overall project was of concern. The PAR estimates that the total for both the reconstruction of the historic building and the expansion of the library over a vacated alleyway would be over $20 million. For this reason, Rohrbach once again reiterated the need for going slow.
“It’s a big project, it’s a big price tag,” he said. “We didn’t want to come tonight with the presumption that a decision could be made.” Rohrbach went on to say that he understood that a project of such magnitude and price could take many years and would involve many steps. The PAR, he said, represents a first step and a way for the council to open discussions.
Later in the meeting, the council heard a presentation by City Financial Administrator Craig Shepherd and ultimately adopted the budget for fiscal year 2025. Shepherd thanked the mayor and council for all the work they do to help the city run and for helping to assemble the budget, which he said was balanced and that the “total requirements do agree with the total resources.”