Exterior brick work and interior construction are continuing at Marshall’s city hall building on Main Street. On Tuesday, members of the Marshall City Council approved a $130,000 quote for furnishings in city offices and public spaces like the renovated council chambers. That figure came in under the original $300,000 budgeted for furniture.

MARSHALL – Another piece of the construction project at Marshall’s city hall will be coming into place, after members of the Marshall City Council approved furniture purchases for the renovated offices and public spaces like the city council chamber.

The proposal they approved was for $130,000, plus a 5% contingency.

The city had budgeted $300,000 for furnishings at City Hall. Exact furniture costs were some of the last unknowns in the renovation project, city staff said in January.

Marshall City Administrator Sharon Hanson said the City Hall building committee met Tuesday to go over furniture proposals and make a recommendation for the city council. The city can use some of the existing furniture taken from the Marshall Municipal Building, but other pieces of furniture like office desks will need to be smaller to fit in the renovated city offices.

“We did need to look at” buying some new furnishings, Hanson said. Marshall city assessor Dave Parsons and administrative services director Annette Storm took on the task of figuring out what kind of furniture, and storage spaces like cabinets and shelves, city offices would need.

Storm said they came up with an original quote of $195,000, for furnishings that would maximize storage space. However, she said, “We wanted to pare it back a little bit.”

“We minimized where we could,” she said. “Now we’re down to right around $130,000,” plus 5% in contingency funds. The $130,000 amount not only covered the cost of furniture, but also costs like shipping and assembly.

“It’s a very good quote, and I want to commend staff for getting it down to that,” said council member James Lozinski.

Council members went on to approve the furniture quote.

With the furniture quote coming in at less than the $300,000 originally budgeted for furnishings, the City Hall project is still on target financially. Late last month, Storm said total costs for the project were around $6.9 million, compared to a budgeted $7.22 million. Those figures took into account the actual costs for renovation as well as temporary relocation of city offices, equipment and architect fees. At that time, the city didn’t yet have actual figures for furniture costs.

Construction at City Hall is planned to be finished this spring, with city staff moving back into the building in May.