Tons of Work

By Frank Scotello
Of the Reporter Staff

TOWN OF THERESA - The residents of the Town of Theresa were able to see the walls of their new combination town hall and garage literally rise into place last week.

The concrete walls were cast on site and were raised using a 130-ton crane.

Don Bonack, town highway superintendent, said the wall sections weighed about 40,000 pounds each.

The $460,000 concrete structure is expected to be completed by May, said Dan Doyle, vice president of operations of Doyle Contractors Inc, the general contractor for the building.

Work began in the fall, but the building is taking longer than usual to construct because the town decided not to use the winter enclosure as a cost-saving measure.

We could only work on days when the temperature was warm enough, to pour concrete, Doyle said.

The forms for the wall panels are custom built at the work site, according to Doyle. The concrete is poured, and then it must set four to eight days. All the panels were prepared before they were tilted into place.

The new building is important to Bonack because it will store the town's highway equipment.

The garage section of the structure will consist of two bays to hold the town's trucks and snowplows. The building will also have offices, a meeting room and a small kitchen.

This type of concrete building, constructed by Doyle Contractors since 1989, will provide flexibility, high energy efficiency and low maintenance costs, Doyle said.

Before choosing the building design, Town of Theresa officials toured the company's headquarters, located on Highway 67 west of Campbellsport, which was built with the same construction method.

Voters approved the project at a town meeting held last April, according to the Town Clerk Arlette Lindert.

With the approval of the electorate, the Town Board got a $400,000 loan from TSB Bank. The loan will be repaid over a 15-year period.

Lindert said that the loan did not affect the property taxes of residents.

In fact, the town's real estate and personal property tax rates actually went down this year, she said.

The building is located at the intersection of Highway 175 and County Trunk P near the current town hall.

The current building, which is more than 30-years-old, will be used for recycling collection, Lindert said.