Waterloo Council OKs clerk's office remodeling

WATERLOO, Iowa --- The Waterloo City Hall lobby will become a construction zone this summer.

City Council members voted 4-2 Monday to approve a $97,800 contract with Prairie Construction Services Inc. of Waterloo to remodel the City Clerk's Office. Councilmen David Jones and Bob Greenwood voted against the project, citing concerns that Prairie was the only bidder.

City Clerk Suzy Schares said the project is expected to start in the middle of July and run through August. It will force the public counter --- the place people apply for licenses and pay parking tickets, among other business --- to be relocated temporarily to the basement.

Work involves moving the current counter farther into the large lobby area to create more space. The counter will be narrower, and additional walls would be erected for security.

"Human Resources will also have a separate access so people won't have to go through the clerk's office to get there," Schares said.

The City Attorney's Office, formerly located in the City Clerk's Office area, has been relocated already to the Mayor's Office. Most of the Human Resources activity has been moved into the clerk's office from the Carnegie Annex, a separate building across Mulberry and West Fifth streets from City Hall.

Schares was given the responsibility of overseeing Human Resources when Mayor Buck Clark laid off the former director, Bob Stringer, in January.

While the project will meet the needs of the Human Resources duties, it also creates more space for filing cabinets.

"We have kind of hit our maximum capacity for storage as far as files go," Schares said.

In other business Monday, council members unanimously approved:

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Waterloo Council OKs clerk's office remodeling