By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer

MARGATE – The finance department is on the move in Margate as the final phase of mold remediation in City Hall is about to get under way.
The work is expected to begin Dec. 1, but preparing for the office relocation is a project that has been weeks in the making, according to Fred Verna, the technology lead for the city.
“The relocation of filing cabinets, desks and other equipment was done over the weekend with the help of public works, as they did all of the physical moving of that wing of the building to the upstairs,” Verna said.
“I had to switch all of the phone lines, computer lines and the fax line and had to set up temporary lines. Later this week I will make the switch from old to the new lines all at once, and to our residents nothing will change. When they make a call to the tax office they will get the tax office; it will just be located upstairs for a few weeks while the work is completed,” he continued.
He put together temporary digs inside the mayor’s conference room on the second floor to accommodate City Clerk Tom Hiltner and his staff, Margate chief financial officer Lisa McLaughlin and her staff, along with Sandy Miller of the water and sewer utility billing office.
The long conference table had to be broken down and the dozen large chairs were all moved to an area created in the back of commission chambers for storage, along with all of the 10 full-sized filing cabinets.
“I could not have done all of this without public works,” said Verna. “I boarded off the back end of the courtroom. It is portable, so the courtroom is still available for use.”
Verna said he has done much of the work after hours so there is no disruption of services at City Hall. The switch is to occur at the end of the week.
Verna said he will do a trial and make sure everything is in place and operational, and he will switch the computer, phone and fax lines in one fell swoop over to the newly installed temporary lines, and it should be business as usual.
Tom Hiltner said this is the last phase of the extensive mold remediation at City Hall.
“We are not expecting any surprises in this phase of the project; pretty much the contractor knows exactly what to expect. I anticipate that we will be in temporary space about eight weeks until it is completed,” he said.
“Aside from having to come up to the second floor to pay their taxes or their utility bills, there are no changes for our residents while our offices are being taken care of,” Hiltner said.
The cost to complete the mold abatement has topped $200,000 over the three years and three phases of the project. The money for this phase of the cleanup was appropriated and budgeted for in the 2008 budget, according to the city clerk.