Churchville board discusses options for building use

Churchville trustees continued a discussion about whether to allow public use of the Village of Churchville’s new municipal building at last week’s Churchville Village Board meeting, and decided to continue writing a policy, possibly to be used during a one-year trial period.

"I do think that when people need to use our facility we should allow them to use it," said Trustee Nancy Steedman. "And if we’re going to allow them to use it, we’re going to need guidelines."

The board has received criticism from some members of the community for not allowing the building to be used for meetings other than that of village government. The board of directors for the Churchville Greene Association was turned away when it asked to meet there.

"It’s the people’s building," said Churchville Mayor Donald R. Ehrmentraut. "Churchville Greene, they’re half of the village. They are all taxpayers in the village. People should have the right to come in here."

Part of the problem in deciding whether to allow public use of the building by the board of trustees has been working out the details of what groups would be eligible, for what purposes, and how to maintain the security of the building and its contents.

"You cannot decide who can and cannot use it," said Ehrmentraut. "If you open it to one group, you have to open it to all," he said, including all church groups and political groups.

Board member Lyle Warren questioned whether groups from outside the village should be allowed use of the building. "It is the village of Churchville taxpayers who built it," he said.

Board members agreed that building should be used for special meetings only, rather than as a weekly or monthly meeting room for groups. Village Board Attorney James Fitzsimmons said the board could write a policy stating "the intention of the board is to allow the use of the facility for educational, governmental or civic purposes only."

Originally board members discussed charging only a refundable deposit to use the meeting room, but Warren researched the subject and discovered that a fee must be charged to anyone other than village government.

"It is a public building, built by tax dollars. We have to charge someone to use it … otherwise (a private group) would be benefiting from tax dollars," according to state law, he said.

Village Clerk Sue Davis asked the board to come up with a separate policy for use of the gazebo, to be built on the grounds this fall, as well as separate applications for both. She asked that the board require applications to be in at least a month in advance, and to include the warning that cancellation could occur up to the last minute if the village needed to hold a public meeting.

Trustees Scott Cullen and Dean Arlidge will work on a policy to present to the village board for consideration at a future board meeting.