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New city hall plan needs downsizing
By DAVE SHELTON
Article published on Thursday, June 29, 2006 |
BELLEAIR BEACH – Plans for the city’s new municipal complex are headed back to the drawing board after architect project costs went up by 60 percent.
At a special meeting on June 21, the city’s architect for the proposed $3 million project said estimates are now that bids might show the final cost could exceed $4 million. Architect Ward Friszolowski, who is also mayor of St. Pete Beach, said a recent bid for a project in his city had come in so far over budget that they had to cut-back the size of their proposed building.
The same is likely true in Belleair Beach, he said, explaining there was little else the city could cut from its plans.
“Construction costs have been rising at an unprecedented rate,” Friszolowski said. “At a rate no one could have predicted.”
He said rising costs are the result of building contractors busy with a flurry of new construction and in rebuilding along the Gulf Coast because of extensive hurricane damage. Reports have also indicated there is a shortage in building materials, such as steel and concrete, driving their costs higher.
The proposed new city hall building, at 12,100 square feet, could cost from $250 to $300 a square foot, he said, based on bids he has seen recently on similar projects.
Pointing to the ceiling rafters, Vice Mayor Lynn Rives said, “Our residents would lynch us” if the council went ahead with the building costing more than $4 million. He recalled contentious meetings during the past five years when the city hall was jammed with property owners objecting to the plans.
City Manager Reid Silverboard reminded council members that putting off the new city hall “isn’t an option.” He said the elected officials had already decided that the cost was too much for necessary renovations to the 50-year-old building plagued by an infrastructure that no longer meets building codes, weakened roofs and termite infestations.
Mayor Rudy Davis suggested the city go ahead with the bidding process to see if the architect’s estimates would come true. Council members, however, quickly rejected that idea, saying it could further delay the process.
The consensus was that the City Council needed to reduce the size of the new building to get the cost below $3 million, which the city has borrowed to finance the project.
Most immediate targets were the size of the proposed council meeting room and the police department’s headquarters.
Councilwoman Mary Schoonover suggested the council could meet somewhere else, even on the mainland.
Davis pointed to only a handful of residents at the special meeting, saying he had noticed a decrease in meeting attendance since the city started broadcasting tape-delayed recordings of its meetings on local cable.
The proposed space for the police department might be bigger than needed, added Councilman Stan Sofer, who said there was only two officers on duty at any time.
Silverboard said the council should remember that the city hall would be expected to serve the city for at least 30 years. He also suggested the council tour existing city facilities this week to get an understanding of space that is needed for various departments.
Councilman Richard Crowl said residents demand city services and must understand that these services, such as the police department, need functional space in which to work. He added that the city is likely to find that, to reduce the cost by 20 percent might require more than a 20 percent cut in the building’s size.
The council decided to hold a roundtable work session June 28 to review the building’s floor plan and to determine what could be smaller.
Schoonover also won council support that this session be televised. Most of the council’s work sessions and special meetings are not recorded for the cable access channel.
Davis said the meeting will “essentially be just us” but that some public input might be entertained.
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Article published on Thursday, June 29, 2006
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