Groton — After decades in the basement of the city municipal building, the Groton Municipal Employees Federal Credit Union is moving Aug. 20 to the Groton Shopping Plaza on Plaza Court.

The City of Groton opted not to renew GMEFCU's lease, as the city determines how to best utilize the space the credit union currently occupies.

President and CEO Cheryl Dunaj was not happy about the news at first but has come to take an optimistic view, because the credit union has "kind of been hidden" in the basement.

"The move is going to give us more exposure," she said. "It's going to be more convenient for people who are in the town as well as the city."

The credit union was founded in 1956 and first operated at 359 Thames St., moved to rooms C-7 and C-8 of the municipal building in 1966 and moved into the basement in 1987.

GMEFCU has 900 members, serving personnel working in city and town hall, police and fire officials and Groton Public Schools employees. A work group also can request to become a member, and Dunaj noted that she already has spoken with people working in the Groton Shopping Plaza who want to become members.

She said the radius for the credit union is 25 miles.

Its three full-time employees will be working hard at expanding membership, considering GMEFCU will be going from paying $1 per year to paying rent.

Dunaj stressed that as the credit union prepares for its move, there will be no downtime or interruptions with debit cards, home banking or other services.

Mayor Keith Hedrick said city officials don't yet have a specific department going into the space occupied by GMEFCU. In a contract not to exceed $25,000, BL Companies is doing a study on the best utilization of space in city-owned buildings.

Hedrick expects the study to be completed by mid-summer.

"We are looking at size versus need," he said in an email. "Some departments may have temporary expansion or contraction based on business needs. We are also looking at the impact of the expansion of Electric Boat on the City of Groton Department personnel needs."

Hedrick said that with employees feeling cramped, the city did an impromptu internal study. But considerations of using the auditorium, basement or outdoor portables didn't go anywhere, and so the city hired an outside consulting group "that would objectively look at our space."

e.moser@theday.com