Town of Murray officials have gone back to the drawing board in hopes of having better luck the second time around in passing a proposal for the construction of a new town hall.

In September voters turned down a proposal for a 7,200 square foot building that carried a $775,000 price tag. The town has been approved for a low interest loan from Rural Development. The loan carries a 4.5 percent interest rate.

"This is not a project we have just undertaken," Supervisor Hank Lehning said. "We have been looking into the problems with our town hall for the past seven or eight years."

The need for a new building has become more evident as the years have passed, he said.

"There is no space here to operate an efficient government," he said. "There are no available offices to meet our residents and we have employees working out of filing cabinets in their basement."

Following the September defeat of the proposal, officials scaled the project back to a maximum cost of $600,000. He said the town would only be looking to borrow $548,000 from Rural Development, the remaining $52,000 would come from the town budget's capital fund. The redesigned floor plans call for a 5,200 square foot building.

Lehning said the cost of upgrading the present facility is cost prohibitive, due in part to the facility's concrete block construction. "In order to even make the bathrooms handicapped accessible we would have to tear out entire walls."

The Town Assessor operates out of a second floor office and regularly carts records down to the first floor meeting room when a taxpayer has a question. The diesel fumes emanating from the truck bays below the assessor's office leave a fine coating of oil and debris on the computer equipment, Lehning said.

Lehning addressed concerns that were raised in a recent letter to the editor (Suburban News October 22) which questioned the feasibility of the town and the village to operate out of the same space.

"The letters suggested we (the town and village) purchase the abandoned high school building and convert it to useable space for both our offices," he said.

Lehning said the building is not available for sale, and that the price for rehabilitating and the cost of the environmental clean-up to remove the asbestos would be cost prohibitive. "That proposal would have the potential to cost in the millions of dollars before we were finished."

Construction of a new town hall would alleviate both the hazardous parking conditions as well as lack of parking space, Lehning said.

Officials have budgeted funds in the 2002 budget to cover debt service on the new building.

"Even with the debt service for the new building figured into the budget, taxpayers will likely see a decrease in their taxes," he said.

Lehning said there is a proposed decrease of 17 cents per thousand inside the village limits and 11 cents per thousand of assessed valuation for taxpayers outside of the village.

The project will go before voters again on December 11.