Senate bill has funds for Eureka

By JOHN STANG

The Daily Inter Lake

A request for $200,000 to help build a new Town Hall in Eureka is working its way through the U.S. Senate.

The request was attached to an kkellogg 7/18/06 fiscal 2007 Treasury, Transportation and Housing appropriations bill scheduled to be discussed by the Senate Treasury, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Committee, said Matt Mackowiak, aide to U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.

No similar appropriations request has been made in the U.S. House.

If the Eureka appropriations request survives a full Senate vote, then it will go to a Senate-House conference committee that will hash out whether to add the requested $200,000.

Eureka has been considering moving its town administration and Police Department from its cramped 2,046-square-foot Dewey Avenue building to a city-owned site at the intersection of First Street and Cliff Avenue. There, the town hopes to construct a 7,020-square-foot building in a few years.

A construction budget has not been nailed down, but a preliminary estimate puts the cost at about $1.2 million, said Town Clerk Mary Duram, cautioning that the figure easily could change.

Right now, the town has possibly $50,000 set aside for a new building, she said. The town has properties it can sell to help raise the cash - including the current Town Hall after employees move to a new site.

Eureka plans to seek more federal money in subsequent years, Duram said.