Mary Drier
Staff Writer
FAIRGROVE — Fairgrove Township officials will hold a board of review 7 a.m., on Tuesday, then a quarterly planning commission meeting at 7 p.m. on that day, and the regular monthly Fairgrove Township meeting will be 7:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 16. They will all be at the new township hall at 5002 Center St., Fairgrove, in the former Chemical Bank building.
The meetings will be historic events. It is believed the new location is the first time since the township was formed in the 1800s that township operations won’t have to share space or be done out of board members’ home.
Until this month, the township has shared space with the Fairgrove District Library for several decades.
Township operations relocated this month from a room in the southern part of the library at 1959 Main Street. Before the combination library – township hall was built in the mid 1960s, the two entities shared space for years at a former bank location on Main Street.
In April, Chemical Bank officials sold the property to the township for $1. Since then renovations have been done to convert the former bank into offices for the township’s needs.
Besides the former bank building, the township got property in a zig-zap shape as well as their own parking lot. The township has never had its own parking lot either. Those attending meetings had to park on the street. In addition, the township was able to acquire the lot from the village were the old fire hall used to be, which will be used for parking.
Another perk of acquiring a former bank for a township hall, is its vault.
With a safe place to keep all of our records together in one place, the supervisor, clerk, treasurer and assessor will no longer have to keep their records at home and work out of their home.
Another plus for the community, besides having a roomy township hall, Chemical Bank plans to keep its Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) operational – at least on a trial basis to see how it works out – instead of shutting it down.