HOLLAND, MI (WHTC) – There is a sense of urgency at Holland City Hall to get the Holland Civic Center Place project up and running.
During Wednesday night’s meeting, the City Council finalized the footprint of the renovation, choosing to devote more funding into the building itself and delay work on exterior efforts such as parks and the 8Th Street Marketplace. The money would go towards work on the main eastern facing of the Civic Center, along with adding second-floor restrooms.
Mayor Nancy DeBoer explained why some hard decisions were made now. In a Thursday appearance on “WHTC Talk of the Town,” she told host Ed Ver Schure, “We have these qualified energy conservation bonds that need to be filed with the state in order for us to save anywhere from one and a half to three million dollars in interest rates.”
Meeting the deadlines in qualifying for those bonds is apparently the reason why no final decision has yet been made on a contractor to take over operations of the 8th Street Marketplace/Holland Farmer’s Market when Market Master Candy Todd and Market Assistant Judy Laidler both retire at the end of the current market season. City officials had hoped to have the one- to two-year replacement in place earlier this month.
The project’s overall price tag has been reduced from 15.1 million dollars to 12.75 million, with fundraising slated to continue through year’s end.
