Lazaro Aleman, ECB Publishing, Inc.
An architect's lengthy oral report to the Jefferson County Commission recently on the status of the historic A-Building's restoration costs made for some jaw-dropping numbers.
Bill Douglas, with EMI Architects, told commissioners that $3,851,970 has been expended so far on the restoration effort in grants and local monies. And at that, he said, the restoration was only about halfway complete. What's more, he said, going forward it was going to be much more difficult to get grants.
“This is shocking,” Commissioner Betsy Barfield said, adding that at the rate the restoration was going, it could well cost upwards of $7 million before it was done.
“Truly, it's out of control,” she said.
Barfield said that she'd had no idea that so much money had been spent on the restoration effort. She asked that moving forward, all change orders, county contributions and expenditures on the building be brought before the board. She asked also that the issue be placed on the commission's next agenda for discussion, as she had some comments to make about the situation, she said.
The board then approved an expenditure of up to $416,000, a necessary step if the project is to continue on track into the next phase. The $416,000 was actually counted in the $3,851,970; it covers a required $250,000 county match and work already done or outside the scope of the grant funding.
Even so staunch a critic of government spending as Paul Henry conceded that the county had little choice but to continue funding the restoration at this point, deep as it already was into the project. He advised, however, that the board learn from the experience and in future “not nickel and dime” projects over time, as delays only increased the costs.
Douglas' report traced the project's history from 1997, when he first started working on it under the auspices of the Jefferson County School Board. He enumerated the various grants awarded since then to the A-Building and the work accomplished with the monies. That work, Douglas said, largely consisted of stabilizing the building, ridding it of asbestos, and making incremental improvements. Going forward, however, the restoration was going to require a more sustained effort, he said.
“As we move forward into the next phase, it becomes harder to do it in small parts,” Douglas said.
He said that once this last grant of $750,000 was completed ($500,000 from the state and the $250,000 county match), commissioners needed to decide how the building was to be used once it was fully restored, as the intended use would determine the structure's interior configuration.
Prompting Douglas and contractor Riley Palmer Construction to approach the commission was their need for a decision, as they said the project had reached a critical juncture.
In the past, the two said, Clerk of Court Kirk Reams had been shepherding the project on the county's behalf. Reams, however, has been out of pocket now going on four months because of his suspension. Douglas and the contractor conceded that they should have done a better job of keeping the commission informed and in the loop, which they said they intended to do going forward. But the fact was that things had been progressing smoothly under Reams' direction until the suspension, they said.
The commission appeared overall willing to to let bygones be bygones and move on. Barfield, however, insisted that henceforth, the commission be kept abreast of all decisions affecting the project, if only through County Coordinator Parrish Barwick. She also reiterated that she would have more to say on the topic at the next commission meeting.