MINUTES
STATE
OF NORTH CAROLINA BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
COUNTY
OF HENDERSON SEPTEMBER 21, 2001
The Henderson
County Board of Commissioners met for a special called meeting at 12:00 noon in
the Commissioners' Conference Room of the Henderson County Office Building.
Those present
were: Chairman Bill Moyer, Vice-Chair
Marilyn Gordon, Commissioner Grady Hawkins, Commissioner Don Ward, Commissioner
Charlie Messer, County Manager David E. Nicholson, County Attorney Angela S.
Beeker, and Clerk to the Board
Elizabeth W. Corn.
Also present
were: Public Information Officer Chris S. Coulson, Finance Directory J. Carey
McLelland, Project Coordinator/Risk Management Director Bill Byrnes, Assistant
to the County Manager/Budget Analyst Selena Coffey, Assistant County Attorney
Jennifer O. Jackson, Public Health Director Tom Bridges and his Administrative
Assistant Stephanie King. Present from
the Architectural firm of Freeman-White was Moshen Ghoreishi.
CALL TO ORDER/WELCOME
Chairman Moyer
called the meeting to order at approximately 12:12 p.m and welcomed all in
attendance. The purpose of this meeting was a Facilities and Financing Workshop
for discussion of our facilities and major projects.
MAJOR PROJECTS
David Nicholson
formally introduced Moshen Ghoreishi with Freeman-White. Moshen is Director of Civic Architecture
with the firm. He has been working with
Staff for some time on these projects.
Mr. Nicholson stated that we have contracts with Freeman-White to do the
architectural work on both the Historic Courthouse and the Human Service
Building. We have had the contract on
the Historic Courthouse for several years.
We tried to renovate that facility in the 1990s but were unsuccessful in
getting that project done at that time due to some school needs and jail
needs. The contract was redone recently
and work began again on that project.
Historic
Courthouse
The first thing
that needs to take place is removal of the old jail located behind the historic
courthouse. In this year=s budget is
$150,000 toward demolition of that building.
Staff has been working with an engineer that Freeman-White introduced us
to, to deal with looking at the building to see what should be done. This building abuts the courthouse annex
where our Budget and Finance Department is currently located. They don=t share the same wall but share the
same outside wall. The annex was built
up against the jail and then they put up an inside wall. The engineer has looked at the foundation,
the walls, and the needs. Mr. Nicholson
stated that as part of this same demolition project he asked for prices on
putting up a new wall since it is a shared wall. It is an inexpensive wall to build, being a stucco system wall.
Mr. Nicholson stated that the demolition will cost approximately $90,000 and
the new wall will cost approximately $50,000.
This will fall within the amount of money budgeted in this year. Mr. Nicholson asked the Board for permission
to get the bid specifications together for tearing the building down and
putting a new wall up as one contract.
Commissioner
Hawkins felt very strongly that in view of all the things that have happened in
our nation in the last two weeks, that we cannot predict what financial burdens
will be placed on the County before this is over and felt that the Board should
not move ahead with this project at this time. He stated that there are other
priorities at this time. We don=t yet
have a State Budget. He questioned the
Sheriff=s need for the entire building at 100 N. King Street and the situation
with the City of Hendersonville regarding a possible parking garage associated
with the Historic Courthouse. He stated that this was a financial burden that
should not be placed on the citizens at this time. He did feel that the Board should proceed with the Human Services
Building.
Commissioner
Hawkins stated that he had not seen the figures from the Sheriff on what his
space needs were.
Chairman Moyer
reminded Commissioner Hawkins that the Board had reviewed the Sheriff=s needs a
couple of years ago when Commissioner Hawkins was Chairman. He read some excerpts from the minutes of
March 10, 2000 where the Sheriff had stated that he could fit his operation
into the entire 100 N. King Street facility and have at least five year=s
growth as well as providing proximity to both the new Courthouse and the new
Law Enforcement Center.
Commissioner
Hawkins argued that was when the County
was considering AOne Stop Shopping@ in the Carolina Apparel Building and that
concept is no longer being considered.
There was some
disagreement of opinions and Commissioner Gordon asked to be able to present
her views as others calm down. She
stated that the funds are in this year=s budget and the old jail and the new wall
need to be done whether or not the Board decides to do anything else. She is in favor of proceeding with going out
to bid on this project, stating that after the initial shock wore off about our
Country=s Attack we need to show faith in our community, our country, and our government. She stated that the
Board needs to be prudent, cautious, but needs to keep moving forward. The Board is not approving financing today
but rather approving planning and needs to get the planning done and go
forward. She stated that the Board
should not let a group of terrorists keep this from being done if that is what
needs to be done.
Commissioner
Messer stated that we=ve got to move on. AWe=ve got to plan for the people of
Henderson County.@
Commissioner
Ward stated that based on the study that was done in the past, the Sheriff
could fit his people into this building with ease. The old jail has to come down and the wall needs to be built. AIt=s
budgeted and we need to go ahead and do it. Let=s move on and see what we=ve
got and then we can decide if we want to do the courthouse.@ He stated that he felt the Human Service
Building was essential.
Chairman Moyer
stated that he felt there was a consensus.
He made the motion to proceed with the steps to tear down the jail and
build the wall and finish the work in that phase that has already been budgeted
for, as outlined by the County Manager.
All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Chairman Moyer
stated that it was the consensus of the Board to move forward to review the
facilities plan. There are still a lot of decisions that have to be addressed
but rather than stop now and cancel the courthouse piece of it, to move forward
and hear what=s being proposed and make the decisions as necessary. Four were in agreement and one was opposed
(Commissioner Hawkins).
Staff was asked
to proceed with the presentation.
Mr. Nicholson
explained that the Historic Courthouse is three stories tall with seventeen
different levels. In 1997 when
renovation/restoration of the Courthouse was discussed, if it had been approved
and done at that time it would have cost Henderson County $5,000,000. Those costs have been updated and it would
now cost about $5.7 million for Option A which is an up-dated plan of what was
discussed in 1997. Travel & Tourism
would contribute to those costs and the on-going operating costs now because
they are proposed to be located on the main level and front of the
building.
Mr. Nicholson
explained the option of building a service annex to the back of the building
which would contain an elevator, stairwell, and bathroom facilities for the
entire building. The service annex would be 35 feet wide and would go across
the width of the back of the building.
He pointed out to the Board where different County Departments could be
located. The Commissioners= Meeting
Room would be the old Courtroom. He
envisioned opening up the gallery of the old Courtroom.
There was some
discussion of a plaza area in front of the building with possibly a circular
driveway with some parking and/or a small city park.
The preliminary
estimated cost of renovation and new construction including new heating, air,
and plumbing was $7,200,000. He would
propose to go out to bid in May of 2003.
This proposed plan still needs to be shown to the Travel & Tourism
Board.
Financing
Mr. Nicholson
stated that he anticipates using a COPs (Certificate of Participation) for some
Middle School projects, the Human Service building, and the Historic
Courthouse. Mr. Nicholson stated that
he would discuss this in more detail as he reviewed plans for the Human Service
Building.
Human Service
Building
David reminded
those present that one thing that was done to start off this project was to do
an Operational Analysis of the Health Department Services. This analysis showed
how we flow people through the building at the Health Department.
According to
the space needs studies that have been done, the revised number for the Public
Health Department was 24,797 square feet and 3,597 square feet of growth area
for that department. DSS needs was
25,238 square feet and 2,522 square feet of growth area. There was some discussion of how to handle
growth area, whether it would be a large shelled-in area or areas dispersed
throughout the building.
Following
discussion, the Board expressed the need to see square footage, flexible space,
and extra space/growth space for five years.
There was some
discussion of having two entrances on the back of the building versus one
entrance on the back with a shared vestibule and two lobbies for the two
different departments.
There was quite
a bit of discussion regarding shared space for the two departments. Tom Bridges and his staff had expressed some
concern about some of the shared areas.
Liston Smith expressed that he and his staff had no problem with shared
lobbies, waiting areas, conference rooms, etc.
Everyone understood that there would need to be some coordination
between departments on sharing conference areas.
The architect
and staff have reasonably defined the square footage needs and established that
the building can meet those needs. The
details have to be worked out yet.
Budget
Mr. Nicholson
stated that staff has recently spent time working on the budget for this
project. Ten million dollars still
seems to be a strong budget for this building, including paying off the $2.65
million loan that was taken out to purchase the building originally, as well as
the construction costs of the building which come to about $5,000,000 actual
construction costs. He then expressed
that he hoped for final approval to go out to bid in April or May of 2003 with
financing to follow bid openings. They
plan to bring in a general contractor who has no interest in bidding the
project to get a true cost of the project.
No one wants to go over budget on this project.
Human Service Building $10,000,000
Historic Courthouse 8,000,000
The plan is to
sell the Nuckoll=s Building, Land Development Building, the current Travel
& Tourism Building which would be two to three million dollars to go toward
the project. The net cost would then be
$15 million to $15.5 million that would need to be borrowed.
Liston Smith
had to leave at approximately 1:55 p.m.
MINOR PROJECTS
Mr. Nicholson
reviewed briefly the plans for the following:
Law
Enforcement Center - 100 N. King Street
Nuckolls
Building
McCallister
Building
>New=
Land Development Building (current Health Dept.)
>Current=
Land Development Building
Trace
Barn
Other Projects:
Tuxedo
School
Fletcher
Branch Library
Youth
Shelter
EMS
City
Water Department Building
Chairman=s
Comments
Chairman Moyer
stated that this entire plan is based on the renovation of the Historic
Courthouse and the Sheriff taking over the entire building at 100 N. King
Street. If anything is going to change
with respect to these two pieces of the puzzle, it has to be explored and
decisions made right away.
He asked if the
Board wished to revisit this issue.
There was much discussion. No
decision was made and Chairman Moyer asked that this be placed on the
mid-October agenda for a final decision (October 17, 2001).
BOARD
DISCUSSION/DIRECTION TO STAFF
There was much
Board discussion. The Board wanted to
know what would happen if we don=t renovate the courthouse and what would it
cost and what would happen if we do renovate the courthouse and the costs. They asked for some better cost figures. The
decision also needs to be made whether we want Travel & Tourism in the
Historic Courthouse and the costs and revenues for that. There was also some discussion
about the fact that the Board of Commissioners could raise the room tax, being
authorized to go up to 5%. Our current
rate is 3%.
This item will
be placed on the October 17 meeting and Staff will have as much information and
options for the Board as possible at that meeting.
ADJOURNMENT
Commissioner
Hawkins made the motion to adjourn the meeting at approximately 2:10 p.m. All voted in favor and the motion
carried.
Attest:
Elizabeth W. Corn, Clerk to the Board William L. Moyer,
Chairman