FSU in Talks with City of Frostburg To Take Over Run-Down City Hall on Main Street

In late 2019, the City of Frostburg voted to consolidate their police station and City Hall and begin a $3 million renovation of 37 S. Broadway to house the entities. The rationale provided by the City was that City Hall’s current home at 59 E. Main Street was dilapidated and would require significant financial investment in order to serve the community long-term. What has become known as the “Municipal Center Project” is due to be completed in February 2021 and the current City Hall would then become vacant. However, according to City Administrator Elizabeth Stahlman, Frostburg State University and the city have been in talks for the university to take over the building.

Last month, during the City of Frostburg Mayor and Council Work Session, Stahlman told city officials that she was working on an agreement with FSU to take over the property with the hopes of having a lease agreement before their next work session which will be held today, Nov. 12. The lease agreement would come with a promise of a $100,000 grant for repairs, but would require matching funds from the university. Stahlman told Mayor and Council, “I’m working on having an agreement with Frostburg State, but it wouldn’t be the City managing the grant money, it would be the City passing it on to the entity leasing this building.”

Bradford Nixon, University Attorney at FSU, wrote in response to a request for confirmation, “it is my understanding that after the city moves into the new municipal building, the city has offered to lease the old municipal building to FSU for $1 per year. This is an agreement reached in principle but no written agreement has been drafted to date.” Nixon’s email, from Nov. 2 goes on to say that “no decision has been made for the use of the building by FSU, but whatever it is used for will require renovations.” Any funds put towards the renovations would come from the capital improvement fund provided by the state legislature to the University System of Maryland, according to Nixon.

As of Nov. 2, Nixon said he didn’t know if an agreement would be signed during today’s work session of Mayor and Council, “nothing has arrived on my desk to date. You know what I know,” he wrote by email.

The City of Frostburg relocated City Hall to the 59 E. Main Street location in 2003. The building was built circa 1900 and it is unknown when it was last renovated or upgraded.

However, the arrangement was relatively short-lived.

Beginning in 2015, the City of Frostburg began applying for Community Legacy funds for feasibility studies which would explore whether the 59 E. Main Street building could be renovated for a reasonable cost. However, concluding that the location could not adequately meet the city’s needs at a justifiable price tag, Frostburg officials began seriously considering moving back to their former home on Broadway and consolidating with the Frostburg City Police Department as early as September 2016, according to reporting in the Cumberland Times-News. They paid $17,440 to Murphy & Dittenhafer that year to create a strategic plan for the move, including projected costs for renovating the space on Broadway.

In May 2019, the City applied for grants and explored possible bond loans in order to renovate the space at 37 S. Broadway and voted to vacate the 59 E. Main Street location thereafter. In the written rationale for the decision to move City Hall from Main Street, the numerous maintenance and accessibility issues that impact the building are provided with loose corresponding expense estimates. The issues raised in the report have been listed below:

• Repair and replacement of facade $$
• Mold remediation in front office & repair wall $$
• New storefront for accessibility improvements to meet ADA standards $$$
• ADA accessible front counter area $
• New carpet (tripping hazard and/or badly stained) $
• New HVAC system (continued issues with current system, inefficient, no fresh air) $$
• Remodel of rear restrooms (ceiling crumbling, etc.) $$

Under long-term considerations, the City of Frostburg reported that the 59 E. Main Street building had no air conditioning on the second floor, would need an elevator, needs electric and efficiency upgrades, and would require new windows.

Though the City did not provide an estimated cost for the renovations to the location on Main Street, it is assumed that the cost for renovating both the existing City Hall and Frostburg Police Station would be greater than the Municipal Center Project’s nearly $3 million price tag.

The City of Frostburg did report, though, that annual building operational costs at 59 E. Main Street exceed $25,000 a year for gas, electric, internet, insurance, normal maintenance, and yearly repairs.

Frostburg State University has not announced what they plan to use the building on Main Street for. The university already operates the Center for Creative Writing and Alumni Center out of the Lyric Building, which they took over in 2009, located two blocks up the street from the current City Hall.

The Frostburg Municipal Center Project Discussion slideshow from May 9, 2019 and referenced above can be found here.

The annual operating costs reported by the City of Frostburg for 59 E. Main Street are below:

Correction: An earlier version of this article erroneiusly said the Municipal Center Project was projected to be completed by May 2021. Initially, the project was set to complete in December 2020, but is not projected to be completed in February 2021.