By David Fleet
Editor
Atlas Twp.- Since August, township officials along with Genesee County Sheriff deputies shared a small trailer just behind the Gale Road township hall due to an extensive renovation project.
Now the dust has settled.
At 5:30 p.m., Oct. 21 a big step back to normalcy will begin, as the first monthly board of trustees meeting will be conducted in the renovated township digs following a five month absence.
“This building will be in good shape for the next 40 years,” said Tere Onica, township supervisor.

“Keep in mind the cost to replace the hall with a new building would be more than $2 million. We had the money saved and it was a good time to do it.”
An official grand opening will be announced later in the year, she said.
The original 4,500-square-foot township hall was constructed in 1980 and is a steel building with metal stud infill. Deficiencies in the building were first reported by Davison based H2H Architects who assess the physical condition of the township hall during the summer of 2016. In 2018, at a cost of $36,800 the township board of trustees approved NJB Architects Inc. to prepare the bidding and construction documents for the phases of the township building renovations.Then in March, at a cost of $634,000, the township board of trustees OK’d by a 5-0 vote township based Family Building Company for the extensive remodeling of the township offices.
Demolition of the hall began last May and construction has been ongoing through the summer months.
“With changes and extras the project now is about $770,000 in costs,” said Onica.
The additional $136,000 in costs are attributed to several structural issues, extra insulation in the roof area and changes needed in the entrance area.
“The building will now be very energy efficient with significant savings on heating and cooling through the year,” she said.
The redesign of the interior, included expanding the building by about 3,000 square feet to about 7,500 square feet. The two bay garage area, once home to a township firetruck was converted into office space—adding about 640 square feet to the building. The sheriff deputy area is now larger and includes a locker room to change. Additional spray in insulation was used on the roof area. The kitchen includes a 490 square feet addition, for the new community board room. The existing board room was converted into a conference area and storage rooms.
“Lights come on when people enter rooms now,” she said. “The building will be up to date.”
Many of the desks and office furniture purchased in 2012 are reused.
“Some issues in the building we were not aware of after the walls were opened during demolition,” she said. “There was water getting into the building and these issues need to be addressed before it’s closed up with drywall. Let’s ‘Do it right and do it once.’”