Fast-growing Altoona looks at future needs for municipal buildings

Jun. 19—ALTOONA — Given a 21% rise in population during the past decade and ongoing residential development to accommodate more residents, Altoona is looking at how its public buildings and municipal workforce may need to grow in coming years.

Last week the City Council received a report from FGM Architects, a firm Altoona hired to do a study projecting public employees and facilities needed in the next 20 years.

"It's a long view of the city's needs and there will be years of discussion on this," City Administrator Michael Golat said.

The document outlines almost $32 million in potential building projects for the next 20 years, including expansion of the Altoona's Emergency Services Building, City Hall and public library.

The city's elected leaders heard the consultant's report at Thursday night's meeting, but didn't take any action that would commit to any of those projects. The report will be kept handy though when the city does budgeting and building project planning for future years.

"That's going to take a lot of discussion and planning to figure out how and if it could be paid for," Golat said.

One piece in the report that Golat is confident will happen is Altoona acquiring the Eau Claire County Highway Department land and buildings on Spooner Avenue. When the county completes its new facility for its highway operations at a spot south of Eau Claire, it would vacate 13 acres it has long occupied on the busy street in the heart of Altoona.

Jon Johnson, county highway commissioner, said that construction project is expected to start this fall and be done in late 2022 or early 2023. The county is aware of Altoona's interest in the old Highway Department property, he said, but it is also getting the land and buildings appraised to determine its market value.

Altoona is eyeing the site to both reuse buildings there to accommodate the city's public works operations, but also because the land would allow for expansion of the neighboring Emergency Services Building, which houses Altoona's police and fire departments.

One of the biggest items in the FGM Architects report is a $14.5 million expansion to the Emergency Services Building, including a much larger garage.

In terms of city staffing projections, the consultant's report anticipates full-time employees doubling in the next two decades, while its number of part-time positions would shrink. Some of that is based on regular growth of departments, but the report also predicts the Altoona Fire Department going from volunteer-driven to full-time staffing in the future — a major shift in personnel that city leaders have not come close to broaching yet.

Exactly what gets built and what new positions the city will create to provide services to its growing population will come down to decisions to be made by Altoona's elected officials.

"The (City) Council is going to have to prioritize what they think is the next, most important project," Golat said.

The report was conservative about Altoona's future population growth, anticipating it will settle down to about 1% following the surge of the 2010s.

Altoona's population in the 2010 census was counted at 6,706 residents. It had grown to 8,099 people by the start of 2020, according to an estimate from the state Department of Administration.

The city's population boom has also brought more students to Altoona's public schools.

"We are experiencing the growth as well," Superintendent Heidi Eliopoulos said.

In the past five years, the number of students has climbed 11.5% in the district. The headcount was 1,639 in the 2016-17 school year and it had risen to 1,829 in 2020-21.

It has put Altoona in the top 10 fastest-growing school districts in the state based on rising enrollment, Eliopoulos said. (She noted that there are seven newer virtual schools in that top 10, which leaves Altoona among just three brick-and-mortar school districts to get into the ranking.)

Like the space needs study the city recently commissioned, the school district expects to soon seek experts to evaluate how its buildings may need to expand to accommodate growing numbers.

"We'll probably also engage in population and facility studies in the next year or two," Eliopoulos said.

The most recent evaluation of its buildings was done prior to a fall 2014 referendum where voters approved $23 million for a new elementary school and significant remodeling of its old elementary and middle school buildings.

Rising student enrollment has prompted some areas previously used as offices to be converted into rooms for teaching students in the district's buildings, but the superintendent said it's not yet reached the point where it is a space crunch.

"Right now we're still fitting here," Eliopoulos said.