St. Marys OKs deal to design building

ST. MARYS - City council members Monday approved entering into a contract with Burgess & Niple, a Columbus-based firm, to design a new municipal building, parking lot and the neighboring Baughman Park Complex for an initial cost of $743,000.

The city has budgeted approximately $7 million for the construction of a new municipal building, according to safety and service director Greg Foxhoven. For projects such as this, design costs are typically 10% of overall construction costs, meaning the design for the municipal building should come in at $700,000 or below. According to the legislation passed Monday, the design costs for the municipal building will be $688,500, costs for the Baughman Park Complex design will be $39,500 and the South Street parking lot design will be $25,000.

City officials began evaluating different firms and their qualifications in March for the three projects. While the focus is currently on constructing the new municipal building, the parking lot and park complex were added with the vision they project would all flow together.

Foxhoven said costs had initially been higher for the design work, but after different meetings with city officials, some costs had been reduced or removed entirely. Officials are talking with the city's bond counsel and municipal advisor about borrowing the money necessary, though city auditor Doug Riesen said both the bond counsel and municipal advisor had given the city the go ahead after considering bond rates.

"That was one of the first questions we asked: Should we wait? And they all said no way," Riesen said.

The city hopes the new building would be ready for St. Marys' bicentennial event in 2023, and is still trying to stick to an aggressive timeframe, Foxhoven told council members. However, with that due date in mind, he felt the city was already behind.

"There's a lot of work to be done yet," Foxhoven said.

The Murphy and Palm buildings at 111 W. Spring St. and 101-103 W. Spring St., will need to be razed by the end of the year so that Burgess & Niple can properly assess the lay of the land. The buildings are still being assessed for asbestos, and Foxhoven has said in the past that if asbestos levels are high enough, the city may need to collect bids for dealing with it. Doing so would slow the process.

"We had hopes of being in this for our bicentennial. I don't know that we'll be in it. It's an 18-month construction period, so it could be built, it could be part of an open house process for our bicentennial, but I just don't know that we can move quickly enough," Foxhoven said.

Different factors such as the weather and availability of materials could also affect the final completion date. Foxhoven said the city had also taken a long time picking a firm for the design work, wanting to do their due diligence, and so some of the delay was their responsibility.

"We spent a lot of time checking their qualifications and references because we have one shot at this, and we just felt like we need to be absolutely sure," Mayor Patrick McGowan said.

Burgess & Niple reportedly has an excellent reputation with parties the firm has worked with in the past, according to McGowan.

Council member Dan Uhlenhake commented on the cost of the design work alone, and Foxhoven agreed the cost was "staggering," but again said it was the industry standard for the overall estimated cost of the project.

Foxhoven was unsure when initial drawings would be done, but said it had been made clear the city did not want a "space age-looking building." Rather, the city wants something that will fit into the existing downtown area, and they've made that clear to Burgess & Niple, he said.

Council members unanimously passed an emergency ordinance authorizing the contract services after suspending the rule of three readings.

In other business, council members also passed under rule suspension an ordinance appropriating $651,875 to be used as part of Phase 1 of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's land buyout program to buy homes in town in an area that floods.

The appropriated funds were received from FEMA, according to Foxhoven.

"The nine houses involved have a price tag of $1 million. FEMA is responsible for 87.5%, so that's $875,000. The city is responsible for 12.5%, that's $125,000," Foxhoven said. "Our 12.5% can be cash or in-kind services. We plan to do both."

The first buyout involves nine houses, with the newly appropriated funds to be used to purchase seven of those houses. Seven of the houses are located on McLain Street, with another two on the east side of Hackney. As part of the FEMA program, the purchased buildings would be razed and converted to greenspace.

Foxhoven said the city hopes to close on a few of the properties on Thursday. Under the FEMA program, homeowners would need to be out of the residence by closing time, as the city would then have 90 days to raze the structure and begin land restoration.

The next council meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. July 12 in the city office chambers.

Council members also,

• learned the community open house for the new water plant will be 1-4 p.m. Aug. 6.

• passed under rule suspension an emergency ordinance authorizing the sale of 25.555 acres of land to St. Marys City Schools for the price of $459,990.

• passed under rule suspension an emergency ordinance authorizing the city to bid out the reconstruction of a storm water retention pond southwest of West Intermediate School. The 5.3-acre pond has begun to fill in with silt and waste and city officials want the pond dredged back to its original grade; Foxhoven said dredging the pond could help the area with flooding issues during heavy rain events. The engineer's estimate for the work is $8,000, and the city plans to open bids July 15.

• passed under rule suspension an emergency ordinance authorizing the issuance of notes in anticipation of bonds for the first phase of the East Spring Street Reconstruction project.

The principal sum of the bonds will be no more than $30,000, dated approximately June 28, 2022, and shall bear interest of 3.5%.

• performed first reading of an emergency ordinance amending city codes to allow the city code inspector to check for high weed violations once per week.

• performed first reading of an ordinance amending the city's vacant building code which would allow the city to assess unpaid fees and increase fees for every consecutive year a residence remains vacant up to a $4,000 maximum fee.