A long-considered plan to renovate the Exhibition Building at the Finney County fairgrounds took a step forward Tuesday after the county commission asked the project’s architect to prepare documents in advance of seeking bids.
“We’ve been talking about this now for close to five years,” Commissioner Dave Jones said. “At some point, we need to make a decision.”
Blaine Davis, the project’s architect, told the commission it will take a few weeks to prepare bid documents for the project. Once they are ready, the commission will have a better idea of costs associated with the project, and they can decide whether to bid it as one large project, or as a base bid with several alternates.
According to October’s estimate, the renovation would cost about $707,000, generally split evenly between interior and exterior improvements. On the outside, work would include improving the south vestibule and canopy, the east vestibule and table/chair storage, doors and hardware and painting. Interior work includes an insulation retrofit of roof and walls, catering kitchen improvements and painting, mechanical unit heaters and lighting.
County Administrator Randy Partington believes enough money is available in the budget for the project from reserve funds and county sales tax.
The county has about $339,000 saved in a capital reserve fund from previous budget years that were meant for building maintenance, he said. Additional funding could come from the county’s sales tax. The county collects about $850,000 per year in sales tax and spends about $800,000 per year on road projects and building maintenance.
Partington said the county ended 2012 with a cash balance of $509,000 in the sales tax fund and the proposed 2013 budget includes more than $1 million in budget authority.
Commissioner Cliff Mayo expressed concern about the building’s ventilation system, which isn’t currently in the proposed project. The current system is loud and doesn’t do a good job of taking hot air out of the building in the summer.
Mayo said there may be additional options to consider to make the building more useable.
“We want to make sure what we put out for bid is what we really want to do,” Mayo said. “I’d rather spend a little more right now. ... rather than leaving ourselves so short that we can’t use it for anything.”
Other than improvements to the kitchen, Davis said the project currently doesn’t really expand the building or its use, it mostly addresses cosmetic and maintenance-type issues.
Other commissioners are ready to start the project.
“We’ve kicked this thing around for quite awhile. I think we need to go ahead and get it out for bid and then look at options for maybe splitting some of it out if needed,” Commissioner Roman Halbur said.
Jones suggested the county could bid the projects as interior and exterior improvements. When the numbers come in, the commission could decide whether something could be taken out of the exterior plan to do something else with the interior, like improving the ventilation system.
One thing the county won’t need to worry about is the building’s roof. In November, the commission postponed putting the project out for bids due to concerns about the roof.
But a recent inspection found the 37-year-old roof is in good condition and should be serviceable for quite awhile. Inspectors observed some minimal hail damage and indicated the skylights are still serviceable with little degradation from ultraviolet light.
“I was pleasantly surprised at how good it looked,” Davis said. “It doesn’t show any signs of rust or seams opening up. Everything about it looked good. We’re safe to spend some money under that roof.”
The air can be described as … well … “chewy.” It's thick, and you feel it in your lungs with some actual heft. And it has a flavor — metallic, with hints of charcoal and just a touch of grit, it’s long on the palate. Every day I walk my fiancée to her office about a mile away. On a clear day, it’s an easy walk that I enjoy, taking in the hustle-and-bustle of one of the planet’s most vibrant cities. On a bad day – well, it’s kind of like running a marathon. Your lungs burn, your eyes sting, and you push through it to get to the finish line. We both wear masks – the industrial-grade kind that filter out very fine particulate matter. You’ve probably seen them before in the U.S. — in construction sites, or hospitals or asbestos-removal projects. Now, imagine that about half the people you encounter, everywhere you go, are wearing them all of the time. That’s Beijing. Well, Beijing, or a scene from “Outbreak.”
The funny thing is, I’ve grown really accustomed to my mask. It fits snugly and has a soft lining, keeping my face warm against the bitter winter cold. It looks kind of cool in a Darth Vadery way. And there’s something comforting about the hiss-click sound the filter makes as I inhale and exhale while cutting my way through the pea-soup haze. I’m going to miss it when I inevitably return to the U.S., and I often picture myself wearing it in Atlanta traffic and wonder if I’ll be able to pull that off.
Apparently I’m not alone in liking the mask either. As mentioned, at least half of the folks these days are wearing them, and being the hottest fashion accessory, many people have taken to accessorizing accordingly. This morning’s walk revealed several themes, from Hello Kitty, panda, to kitten and puppy masks. I even saw a young woman wearing a cotton “Juicy Couture” mask. I was tempted to stop her and let her know that not only was the cotton mask virtually useless in filtering out the dangerous particulates in the air, but it was painfully out of vogue as well.
Mask or not, most folks I know have cut their outdoor time to a minimum. You go where you have to go and head back home. Restaurants seem less crowded, cafes are nearly deserted, and the parks are practically empty as people bunker down and wait for a rare clear-air day. I pity the poor restaurant delivery guys who are especially busy these days. Chinese culture eschews the notion of tipping, which is a shame, as most of these guys should probably be saving up for the inevitable lung transplant.
No comments:
Post a Comment