Village of Colfax donates heat radiators to CMBRG

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX —  The Colfax Village Board has agreed to donate the municipal building heat radiators to the Colfax Municipal Building Restoration Group.

Although the village board had planned to discuss the issue of the radiators again at the first regular meeting in April, the radiators were included as an agenda item for a special village board meeting April 1.

At the March 25 village board meeting, several CMBRG representatives asked about removing the radiators and whether the village could donate them to the restoration group.

The radiators are no longer needed to heat the building and are not considered to be of historic significance to the municipal building.

Members of the restoration group were hoping to either sell the radiators for scrap iron or as antiques for other restoration projects.

According the Colfax municipal code, the village board does have the option of donating the radiators to a non-profit group or another governmental entity as public property that is surplus.

Mark Halpin, village trustee, wondered who would remove the radiators and who would pay for their removal.

The radiators used steam heat and a certain amount of plumbing will need to be removed along with the radiators themselves.

Several village board members, as well as Jackie Ponto, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, pointed out that at the last regular village board meeting in March, the CMBRG representatives had said that if the village could donate the radiators to the group, CMBRG would pay for their removal if they could have the option of selling them.

The radiators have already been removed from the library and the clerk’s office, noted Beverly Schauer, village trustee.

Schauer wondered what the other village board members wanted to do with the radiators that had already been removed.

Chris Olson, village trustee, said the village had paid $1,200 two years ago to remove four radiators from the library.

The Colfax Village Board unanimously approved a motion to donate to the Colfax Municipal Building Restoration Group the radiators that had already been removed along with the radiators in the auditorium with the understanding that the restoration group would pay for their removal.