1) The current building was designed and built forty years ago and the village has long since outstripped the building in terms of space needed.
Since the building was built the amount of staff needed to deal with running a village has greatly increased. For instance, back when the building was designed, there was a single, part-time Clerk/Treasurer. Forty years ago, the job could be done by one person part time. Since then the level of complexity and experitse needed to run the records and finance operations of the village have increased to the point that there are four full time jobs needed to cover it. The entire building department and planning office is currently housed in former jail cells next to the police station. Village Hall is overcrowded and staff are spread out among three buildings, making it more difficult to efficiently help the public and leading to decreased morale among village employees.
2) The sprawling village complex is a poor use of that property. It makes more sense to me to integrate the Village Hall more directly into the village proper, much like Rosendale has its’ Town Hall right on Main Street in a building that fits in to the community. I mention in another blog post what I think would be a better use of the village hall lot
100 Ideas for New Paltz
why?
Two reasons:
1) The current building was designed and built forty years ago and the village has long since outstripped the building in terms of space needed.
Since the building was built the amount of staff needed to deal with running a village has greatly increased. For instance, back when the building was designed, there was a single, part-time Clerk/Treasurer. Forty years ago, the job could be done by one person part time. Since then the level of complexity and experitse needed to run the records and finance operations of the village have increased to the point that there are four full time jobs needed to cover it. The entire building department and planning office is currently housed in former jail cells next to the police station. Village Hall is overcrowded and staff are spread out among three buildings, making it more difficult to efficiently help the public and leading to decreased morale among village employees.
2) The sprawling village complex is a poor use of that property. It makes more sense to me to integrate the Village Hall more directly into the village proper, much like Rosendale has its’ Town Hall right on Main Street in a building that fits in to the community. I mention in another blog post what I think would be a better use of the village hall lot