Bill up $500,000 for Wheeling's new building

Wheeling trustees grudgingly backed spending an additional $500,000 on the village's new public works building at Monday's committee meeting.

The money will be spent on "functional" interior items, said Jon Sfondilis, Wheeling's assistant village manager.

"For example, we had one outlet in lots of the rooms, but it turns out we need three," said Sfondilis after Monday's meeting. "These are not upgrades, but items we need for the project."

The total cost to rebuild the public works building at 77 W. Hintz Road was supposed to be $12.5 million. The building is about 135,000 square feet and sits on about 11 acres. It is under construction and will be open on Aug. 1, Sfondilis said.

Trustees first heard about the extra costs last week. At the June 1 meeting, several trustees weren't happy when they heard the extra costs would total almost $637,000.

Wheeling Trustee Ken Brady was one of the trustees who criticized the extra costs.

"Businesses are closing, we're laying people off and you want to spend thousands of dollars on better outlets?" Brady said. "Isn't this supposed to be a simple garage with some offices? I've never seen these kinds of charges."

Village Manager Mark Rooney said the change orders started piling up in March.

"It was an oversight on my part. I should've stopped them," he said. "At the same time, I never thought any of these change orders were out of line."

Some of the items village officials cut to get down to the $494,414 figure included a $2,500 trophy case, exterior flood lights that cost $11,500 and $7,500 on granite counter tops.

The board will officially approve the new list of extra costs on June 15.

"I guess we learned a lesson," said Trustee Dean Argiris on Monday. "This is something we should've been paying attention to three months ago."

The public works building is part of a $40 million transformation of Wheeling's public facilities that began with the village hall, which opened for business in March. The village also will begin building a new fire station at the same time on property east of South Milwaukee Avenue, north of Hintz Road. All village buildings will have a prairie-style theme.

Spending: 'I guess we learned a lesson,' trustee says