Moundsville Moving Ahead with Municipal Building
Photo by Alan Olson Trending
MOUNDSVILLE -- McKinley Architecture & Engineering was given the green light to move ahead with finalizing designs and going out to bid for Moundsville's new municipal building, after much debate Tuesday evening.
In a marathon meeting lasting more than two hours, Moundsville council members voted 5-1, with Randy Chamberlain opposing and Denny Wallace absent, to authorize McKinley to proceed with engineering the city building. The cost of the building will be determined when the building is put out to bid, which is expected to happen over the coming weeks.
City Manager Rick Healy said the design McKinley was authorized to go with lacks a basement, but allows the use of much of the second floor of the building, plus what third-story room exists, as a storage space, which is currently a critical issue facing city employees. Several designs were brought before council and modified before the current design was accepted.
"The basement was the largest expense in the old designs. By taking the basement out, we were able to save more money," Healy said. "We went up instead of down, we added a second floor; everything that was in the basement is on the second floor, for the most part, and the third floor is a wide-open storage area, and it'll be partially unfinished."
Healy presented a slideshow of photos documenting the current conditions city employees, including members of the police department, work in, drawing disapproving comments from members of council as to the state of repairs and the critical lack of storage space. Totes and boxes are seen in the photos filling every flat surface in the city building, while the structure of the Moundsville Police Department was in bad shape. The police department will join city fire crews in being homed at the new municipal building.
Healy gave a tentative timeline of possibly breaking ground on the structure this summer, if things go smoothly.
"If I look at the calendar and I'm being fair, and not optimistic, I think we could potentially - if our bids come in at the right amount - be breaking ground in July."
Chamberlain voiced his concerns with pursuing the massive construction project now, with regards to the rising costs of materials. Chamberlain has, on numerous prior occasions, noted that COVID-19 had caused costs of materials and labor to increase, a problem which has only worsened as time went on. Chamberlain added, though, that he was certainly in favor of a new city building.
"This environment that we're right in the middle of right now, this is a very precarious time to begin a project of this magnitude," Chamberlain said. "Steel prices over the last year increased 127%. Plastic used in construction has increased over the past year by 34%; plywood is up 14%, and lumber is up 17%, in one year's time. ... If you read the professional papers, which I try to do, contractors are talking about the inability to get materials, and get them in a timely manner, and if they can't get them in a timely manner, that delays the project, and time is money.
"… We're talking about a lot of money here - the biggest expenditure in our city's history. We've got to get it right this time," he added."
Mayor Judy Hunt countered that the city had already invested significant amounts of money in designing the building, and that if the council balked at the price of the project when bids come in, it could be revisited.