City working to get renovation bids within $91K budget
The Board of Alderman is reevaluating what to do with the Columbia Waterworks building after bids to renovate it came in nearly $75,000 more than funding.
A possible alternative is using it as an office and sports hall of fame if a sportsplex is built nearby.
“We need to look at the use of the building based on the use of the property around it,” Mayor Justin McKenzie said. “In the future, if a sports complex came to life along R.A. Johnson (Drive) into the property that the city owns in front of the fire station, we could see a direct need for the building.”
Aldermen voted to reject bids and rework the renovation to get it within budget, mainly by just doing the hardware and basic electrical work. In the meantime, they’ll be looking at possible plans for the 1947 structure, which hasn’t been used as a waterworks for decades.
Alderman-at-Large Edward Hough said he was concerned with the security of the building, which has been hit by vandals several times.
“We at least need to protect what we’ve done,” he said. “It’s a wonderful building and I would love to see it turned into something useful. I wish we had some money.”
Ward 3 Alderwoman Anna Evans agreed to be cautious.
“Now is not the time,” she said. “It is something that we are definitely looking at. We’re going to be looking at what we can use it for. This is a step in making it happen, but I don’t think we’re there yet.”
McKenzie said he agreed with the concerns because the city’s sales tax revenues are lower.
“We really don’t have any extra money for things,” he said.
A previous administration had an interest in moving the Marion County Museum and Archives to the location, but McKenzie said city officials have mixed feelings about that.
“We’re not sure that is the direction that we want to go and put that much money into it and move the museum from here to there,” he said.
McKenzie said the building is secured and it’s not going to hurt it to sit until they have a firm plan of action.
“My thoughts were that it could become a sports hall of fame and let the recreational director operate an office out of the facility, which would be the case if a sportsplex was built nearby,” he said. “If you had that landmark related to your sports complex, it would be where signups for baseball were held or where you would go to discuss holding any kind of tournaments at the facilities. But for that to happen, we would need a sports complex.”
A youth baseball facility has been discussed in Columbia for years, with several different locations debated, but getting enough money to do it has never happened. Building one off R.A. Johnson Drive would put it on land already owned by the city and near the Columbia High School athletics facilities and the waterworks.
The waterworks has been deemed a historically valuable structure, built in art deco style, and so funding for the beginning of its renovation has come from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
But bids came in higher than city officials had hoped, Engineer Jeff Dungan said.
“The low base bid was $116,600 and there were three add alternates that totaled about another $20,000, so the total if you awarded base bid and alternates would be about $137,000. The total architect fees would be about $29,000, so our total cost would be around $166,000,” he said.
Funding is just $91,425: $69,483 from the grant and $21,942 from the city.
Dungan said the grant is good through December 2019, giving the city time to rework the plan.
“That means we would have to be completely finished by then. We have some time. If it was awarded now, we’d be through in the spring, well ahead of schedule,” he said. “If we delay, it might be a little bit of a challenge.”
The current bids include doors, door hardware, electrical service and panels for the building, exterior lighting for security, distribution of lighting inside and repairing glass blocks.
“Right now there’s really not any electrical service that is useful,” Dungan said. “If you are going to do anything with the building, you have to have the service and panels.”
Dungan said he would discuss items with the architect and have the project reworked to meet the budget constraints and re-advertise to get bids and take advantage of the grant money.
