Published: May 20, 2009 11:28 pm      

City changes garage plans

Catlettsburg wants to build prefab building

Catlettsburg — Gate City officials will build a new city garage but have changed their minds about how the building will be constructed and how they plan to pay for it.

Council members no longer plan to pursue a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Rural Development to build a conventional building designed by Sisler-Maggard Engineering.

The garage planning committee, which consists of three council members and the city’s street department supervisor, met Monday to discuss the project and decided to pursue a pre-engineered metal building in an effort to cut costs further. Committee members said they believe the city may be able to pay for the building in cash and avoid borrowing money for the project all together.

After hearing the committees report, the full six-member Catlettsburg City Council unanimously endorsed the new plan Tuesday night. It also voted to direct the committee to finalize plans for a 50-by-80 metal building and put its construction out for bid.

Councilman and committee member Donald Wellman said although officials have no firm estimate on how much such a building will cost they are confident it will be significantly less than the $278,000 estimated price tag on a conventionally built structure.

“We feel this building by Sisler-Maggard is something we don’t need,” said Wellman. He described the new structure as a “pole-type building.”

Council member Randy Salyers said the city will save at least $100,000 immediately by avoiding paying architectural fees to Sisler-Maggard. He said he also believes there will be significant other cost savings.

Sisler-Maggard President Joe Sisler approached the council last week with a preliminary design for a 2,500-square-foot building after finding out the city was eligible to apply a USDA rural development grant to help pay for the new garage.

The firm had drawn the initial design at the request of city officials when they first began discussing building a new garage to replace their current deteriorating facility on Louisa Street.

Sisler said he believed the city could secure $87,500 for the building but would have to borrow at least that much for its construction under the grant agreement.

Mayor Pauline Hunt said she had hoped the city would be able to pay more of the cost from its savings to avoid borrowing. The city was also awarded $26,000 in coal severance funding from 2007-08 to put toward the garage, she said.

Salyers said the pre-engineered buildings, which are sold in kits from a variety of manufacturers, could be erected much more quickly. City workers could then do the partitioning, insulation and some other work to the structure themselves.

Independent contractors would still need to be hired to do the plumbing and to lay the 6-inch-thick concrete floor, according to city officials.

The garage planning committee plans to schedule another meeting within the next week or so to finalize details in order to prepare bid packages for the project. The garage will be built on adjoining city-owned lots on Park Street.

The old garage will be demolished but the city has no immediate plans for the property.

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.