Published: July 15, 2008 09:09 am      

Court OKs 3 costly projects

By Kelly Young

kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com

After months of consideration and an hour of deliberation Monday morning, the commissioners of Cherokee County voted unanimously to green light nearly $1 million in capital improvement projects.

Construction will begin soon to renovate the old police department building in Jacksonville so it can be used as an office building, to build a new evidence room at the Cherokee County Jail in Rusk and to convert the drive-through at the justice of the peace’s office in Alto into a courtroom.

The court approved all three projects for a combined guaranteed maximum price of $929,298. They also elected to spend an additional $69,023 to place a new roof over the tax office in Jacksonville — bringing the total cost of the work to $998,321.

Wes McClure and Randy Garrett, of Garrett & Associates General Contractors, presented the county with four scenarios for their consideration. Scenario A was the project in complete form; including the Jacksonville, Rusk and Alto portions. Scenario B included the Jacksonville and Rusk segments of the work, and scenarios C and D were only the Jacksonville and Rusk projects, respectively.

Initially it seemed the Alto building was no longer up for consideration, until Precinct 2 Commissioner Kevin Pierce objected.

“Alto is in my precinct and I don’t think it’s fair to scrap the Alto project simply because it’s more expensive than we expected it to be. The Alto price is high, but I think the price is too high on all of them,” Pierce said. “The need for the building is not going to simply go away because the price is too high. If you are going to spend that kind of money in the rest of the county, it wouldn’t be right to exclude Alto.”

Once the Alto project was again made a possibility, Commissioner Byron Underwood expressed a strong reluctance to pay for either it or the Jacksonville renovation.

“I’m in full agreement with the other commissioners that we need all three buildings, but I still have a problem with us spending $500,000 on a building in Jacksonville that is 55 or 60 years old, and people in my precinct can’t believe we are thinking of spending anywhere close to that amount on the drive-through in Alto,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with the Rusk project because it’s buying something new, but to spend that much money on existing structures is something I can’t understand.”

Underwood floated the idea of leveling the old police department building and constructing a new structure on the land, but the other members of the court decided to stick to the plan of renovating the Jacksonville building and making it suitable for use by the justice of the peace and constable of Precinct 3.

Garrett said the cost of the renovation ended up being about $85 per square foot. He estimated a new structure would cost about $120 per square foot.

County Judge Chris Davis stressed the importance of doing the work now before rising material costs force the price up even further.

“We have certainly put a lot of time into these projects, and each definitely has a need associated with them. These prices are a lot higher than we expected, but I don’t see them getting any cheaper,” Davis said. “My fear is that the costs are going to continue to rise. This may not be the perfect scenario, but are we going to come out any cheaper by doing something else?”

Eventually the commissioners came to a consensus to approve Scenario A — all the projects — with the stipulation, particularly in the Alto renovation, to use “value engineering” to limit the costs of the construction to the bare necessities.

Garrett reassured the court his workers would do all they could to limit the cost of the projects.

“The numbers you have been given today is the guaranteed maximum price, so if the price rises above that number, we lose money. So we are going to be trying to find ways to keep costs down as much as possible,” he said.

All three sites will be worked on at the same time, with Alto taking about 17 to 19 weeks until completion, and the work in Jacksonville and Rusk lasting about 22 to 24 weeks.

In other news, service awards were presented to county employees for every five years of service to Cherokee County. Fifteen county employees were presented a certificate of appreciation and a commemorative pin. Recipients were Don M. Carr and Kevin W. Lankford for five years; Christie Hollis, Michael Mladan, Jack E. Lassiter, Marcia Morgan, Donna J. Smith, Pamela White, Randall S. Hunter and Jonathan Hughes for 10 years; Peggy Cornelius, Charles C. Davis and Barbara Wilcox for 15 years; James Bice and Guadalupe Meza for 20 years.

The commissioners heard from Alan Lang of ACCESS regarding the agency’s local planning and network development efforts, but no action was taken.

In other business the court approved:

• the laying of utility lines on County Road 1514;

• the county’s financial audit for the year ending Sept. 30, 2007;

• a budget amendment to allow for a new part-time data entry clerk for the sheriff’s department;

• a bridge funding agreement between the county and TxDOT for a bridge replacement on CR 1807;

• a hanger lease agreement out at the Cherokee County Airport;

• changing the job title of veteran service secretary to assistant county service officer;

• the hiring of Dave Thomason as the county’s new veteran service officer;

• the renewal of the county life and health insurance policies;

• the retention of the county’s retirement plan;

• the bid offered by Lorene Jones for the tax sale of struck-off property;

• the resale of three lots in the Shadybrook addition;

• the monthly report from James Campbell, sheriff;

• the monthly report from Ricky Moore, license and weight officer;

• the monthly report from L.H. Crockett, county auditor;

• the monthly report from Eddie Lee, constable for Precinct 3;

• the plat for the Pecan Park subdivision; and

• paying the bills.

The Cherokee County Commissioner’s Court regularly meets at 10 a.m. the second and fourth Monday of each month, at the county courthouse. The public is invited to attend all meetings.