Keep Borough Hall, Lansdale Residents Urge

While a motion to enter into a contract with Spiezle Architects on the development of two alternative designs for the future municipal complex at Vine and Broad streets was delayed at the Feb. 20 Lansdale Council meeting, residents packed the meeting room to hear concerns and express opinions on the historic building.

There was also another debate, this one limited to councilmembers and Mayor Andy Szekely: Should a Request for Proposal go out for the design of the complex and not be awarded to Spiezle, who won the bid for the initial Facilities and Grounds Study?

Resident Bill Henning was the mastermind behind a petition on Change.org to stop the destruction of Lansdale Borough Hall. The petition features signatures of many residents and at least three councilmembers: President Matt West, Dan Dunigan and Denton Burnell.

His petition states: “We, the undersigned, friends and residents of Lansdale Borough, want to see the current Lansdale Borough Hall building preserved. The demolition of said building is not an option.”

Henning said more than 99 percent of those asked to sign did so without hesitation.

He said he attended the June 2012 meeting where Spiezle presented the results of a facilities and grounds study, and the January 2013 meeting where Spiezle presented four concept diagrams for improvements to the municipal complex, comprised of borough hall and the Lansdale Police Department.

"After seeing their photographs and hearing their explanation, I feel I left that evening understanding the issues concerning both buildings. I already started forming my thoughts in my head about each concept they had presented. I was then surprised, and quite disappointed, to hear that two weeks ago, the borough manager was recommending to council that the first two options, which saved the boro building, be eliminated," Henning said.

"There doesn’t seem to be much argument over the fact that the police station is inadequate and the best solution is to build anew," he said. "As far as borough hall, the extent that this building needs to be renovated, and a wish list of amenities that are to be included in this, is for the architects to determine and design and for our elected council to debate."

Henning said no matter what amenities to debate, the demolition of the building is not an option. 

"It is the residents' building and I belive a majority want it to stay," he said. 

Henning then summarized sentiments he has heard and read about the building:

• "Too many old buildings have been torn down in this town, replaced by concrete boxes with no character."
• "Let's fix borough hall, not tear it down."
• "As a citizen born in lansdale, to me it represents home. When I go on vacation, I know I am home when I see that beautiful building."
• "In the past, we have lost a lot of great landmark buildings: the Tremont, Beinhacker building, Lansdale Theater. Buildings like these are tycially privately owned and they lack the funds and desire to upkeep, eventually resulting in demolition."

"We don't need to demolish another piece of Lansdale's character and history," he said. "You control the destiny of this one."  

Henning said the town's character and history are worth it. 

"We have heard many times over the past couple years about following in Phoenixville's footsteps and revitalizing Lansdale. Funny thing: They are building a big, bland-looking new multimillion dollar borough building there, also by Spiezle and Associates. I guess we’re just supposed to follow suit," he said.

Another resident, Debbie Henning, mother of Bill, said the discussion isn't about Spiezle, it's about the building.

"The building's a mess. For historic value, this town is basing itself on the history of Lansdale. People coming in on the train, what's the first building they see? This one. It represents Lansdale," she said. "What Bill wants to do is save three walls and knock down the rest. We want to save what looks like our town." 

Dunigan and Borough Manager Timi Kirchner outlined the foibles plaguing borough hall, including leaky roofs, flooding basement, faulty HVAC systems and more.

 “There’s two sides to this coin: There’s been a considerable jump to this building is going to be razed and never to exist again. If you note options three and four, one preserves the exterior and the other one preserves some portion of this building,” Dunigan said. “Folks, if said amounts are small, wouldn’t you want to keep it? However, I don’t expect the numbers to grow, but what if they were $2 million? We have a serious thing to discuss."

Dunigan said the borough is not going to build Taj Mahal. The building, he said, has to be functional and utilitarian, something that the current building is lacking.

"I've been to the Taj Mahals of some surrounding townships. We don't need one, I don't want one, I would never spend your money that way, nor would I believe anyone sitting on council would," he said. "We can't discuss a design that we don't have on paper yet. We can't engineer out something, or shrink the size of a design, or change the materials until someone has written it down for us."

Dunigan called the conceptual drawings "glorified children's drawings."

"They are just sketches. They have rough estimates associated with them, but they are diagrams. We will evaluate how we spend your money," he said. "Every time I spend your money, I spend mine, I spend two of my brothers', one of my sister's, I spend all of my friends', I spend everybody on council's. That's what it comes down to." 

Resident Neil Migliaccio said the building was in existence before he was born. He loves the building and wants to see it stay in Lansdale.

"It's strange to say the roof leaks. In your house, if your roof leaks, what do you do? You get it repaired. If the pipes break, you get them repaired. If the basement floods, you put in a French drain," he said. "It's unbelievable to me that this building can't be repaired. The money you want to spend, I think you can put it in the building."

Migliaccio suggested the borough move the electric department into the police station, and then purchase the property across Vine Street and build new facilities.

Councilman Jack Hansen said no one is arguing that the building needs to be repaired or replaced, and no one is arguging that a new police department is needed in Lansdale.

"The discusson I heard is, are we going to go to just one suggestion or put it out and ask for other suggestions?" he said. "I do think that enough people out here have shown an interest in what we do with this building, and I'm very happy that these motions have been put off so we can look at it and get it right. Let's do it right the first time. This is our chance."

Council Vice President Mary Fuller clarified that the wrecking ball is not hovering over borough hall.

"It's on the drawing board, and that's it," she said. "We are nowhere close to wanting to destroy borough hall. We understand the crux of what is making people upset is the potential that this building is knocked down and knocked down arbitrarily."

Fuller said the options on the table are for price comparison purposes.

"We are not voting to wreck, raze or ruin borough hall," Fuller said.

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