BAR HARBOR – Crowded working conditions and the possible relocation of Bar Harbor District Court to Ellsworth could result within the next year in significant changes for the town’s municipal building.

Stan Harmon, Bar Harbor’s finance director, said Friday that town officials are looking into changes that could include removal of the stage in the second floor auditorium, conversion of the 3,200-square-foot auditorium into a new meeting room for the Town Council and other boards, and reuse of the existing council room as office space for town employees.

How the town decides to reallocate space in the building depends on whether the state decides to close Bar Harbor District Court, which occupies about 3,000 square feet of the Cottage Street building.

Harmon said the state should decide within the next couple of months whether it will move local District Court operations to Ellsworth.

“What’s driving this is the lack of employee space,” Harmon said of the town’s interest in renovating. “Part of this renovation is to provide improved ventilation, cooling and heating in town-occupied space.”

With the renovation, the town assessor and technology systems administrator would get new offices on either the first or second floor.

“Right now their equipment and records are in the basement,” Harmon said.

About 5,000 square feet in the building is rented by or provided to private firms or organizations. The improvements are only planned for those parts of the building that would be occupied and used by town employees, Harmon said.

By moving the council chambers into the larger auditorium, there would be better egress in the event of an emergency, more room for spectators, less noise interference from the street and possibly improved lighting, he said.

Town officials also hope to install television equipment so Town Council meetings and perhaps those for other boards can be broadcast on a local government-access channel on cable television.

Harmon said the town has budgeted $31,000 for this expense but, so far, only has received quotes for more than that amount.

A4 Architects of Bar Harbor was awarded a $15,000 contract in November to help design the renovated space, according to the finance director.

Though many variables, such as whether the court moves, have yet to be decided, Harmon said preliminary projections indicate the renovations will cost a few hundred thousand dollars.

The town has about $230,000 remaining in bond money that voters approved borrowing in 2003 but the renovations now being considered are likely to exceed that cost, he said. If the court moves, the town would lose nearly $27,000 it gets each year in rent from the state.

Harmon said the stage in the large central room upstairs was built in the 1980s, when a theater company from New York City staged a production in the building.

It has been used periodically since then but not in recent years because productions started frequently to conflict with municipal night meetings, which are held in an adjacent room.

The building was most recently renovated in the 1980s, when a handicapped-accessible ramp was built at the building’s east entrance and an elevator was installed, was when the building was last renovated, he said.

Though town officials want to improve the municipal offices, they want to retain the spacious character of the building, which first was used as the town’s high school, Harmon said.

“They really don’t want to chop the place up into a modern office building,” he said.