By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
The project development board for a new justice center for Barren County has approved a schematic design – with some slight adjustments from the last one presented – and voted to move ahead with taking the proposed plan to the Court Facilities Standards Committee, which must give it a nod.
The CFSC meeting is tentatively scheduled for early August and would be via the Zoom streaming service. Local Circuit Judge John T. Alexander is a member of that 10-member group as well as the project development board but, as discussed at Wednesday’s meeting, would recuse himself from discussion and any votes on the Barren County project.
Jody Driggs, one of the architects on the project, attended via Zoom and walked the project development board through the adjustments that had been made since the last presentation. On the ground floor, the mechanical room needed more space, and with that expansion, the secure inmate holding areas and employee locker rooms were pushed farther to one side, and the shower that had been planned for each of the two locker rooms was omitted. A portion of the storage for the circuit court clerk’s offices was also omitted. The security-monitoring room near the main entrance was enlarged to provide more of a workspace rather than just monitor viewing.
One the second and third floors, the communications equipment rooms were moved to a more central location within the floor, which required shifting some other elements around but generally no additions or deletions.
“We’re at 58,448 now,” Driggs said of the total square footage. It’s still a bit less than 2,000 more square feet than what the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts program estimates they can have and stay within the funding approved through the state legislature, but it has been stated that it is closed enough to work with that they can move to the next phase of design and development, after the CFSC nod.
Tommy Gumm, founder and chairman of Alliance Corp., which is handling project management for the undertaking, provided some tentative figures for construction costs – what a bid package breakdown could look like, he said – that totaled nearly $38 million, noting that multiple economic factors could affect that.
Mark Bannister, facilities coordinator with the AOC, then discussed some of the other costs associated with the project, e.g. design and management fees, technical studies/surveys and utility costs during construction, with the total estimated cost to complete the project at $48 million.
He said Gumm’s estimate was “a very raw estimate” based only on the schematic.
“It’s not like they have actual blueprints to send out to contractors,” Bannister said.
He added that they have received a letter from state Sen. David Givens, whose district includes Barren County, stating that they can finance the project over 25 years rather than 20 if necessary.
“So right now, we’re running pretty close to 20. We’re not quite to where we can do it in 20 years,” Bannister said, “so we’re running pretty good. I think we’re $58,000 a year short.”
He said 21 years, for example, would give them a little more breathing room.
Alex Perdue, a representative of Baird, a financial consulting company that would be working the county on the bond issuance for the financing of the project, was also attending via Zoom and ran through some potential payment amounts at 20 versus 25 years with an estimated 4 percent interest rate. The difference between the 20-year and 25-year plans amounted to about $7 million, he said.
Alexander recapped the changes since the last schematic design before it was then approved and the vote to schedule with the CFSC was taken, with both votes unanimous. Discussion of what to expect at the CFSC meeting took place for a few minutes as well.
This schematic rendering from Silling and Integrity architecture firms shows the north (from left) and west faces of the proposed new justice center for Barren County.
Meanwhile, Gumm told Glasgow News 1 after the meeting that his company can go ahead and hire and abatement consultant to evaluate the former Dollar General Store building and a vacant one behind it to determine whether there’s asbestos or other issues that have to be addressed before the building can be demolished. The consultant will produce a report and the work would be advertised for bids. The structures must be gone before the necessary geotechnical study can be done, he said.
“The architect and engineers have been authorized to get that [consultant] on board and let them do it, and then, hopefully, at the next meeting, we could possibly even have bids for them to consider,” Gumm said. “That might be a little aggressive, but I hope not.”
As the schematic design is pending the CFSC approval and their having little, if anything that would need their review before that happens, the members of the PDB, all six of whom were present for the Wednesday meeting, decided that both July meetings should be cancelled. The next regularly scheduled meeting would be at noon Aug. 9, primarily via Zoom but also in person at Alexander’s circuit courtroom, which would be the day following the CFSC meeting if it takes place on the tentative date announced.
Before the meeting concluded, Barren County Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd asked that they consider changing the meeting time for the last Wednesdays of the month, because they conflict with the Barren River Area Development District meetings she needs to attend as well. After discussion, it was determined by unanimous vote that those last-Wednesday meetings would be at 2:30 p.m. rather than 1 p.m.
The PDB also has regular meetings scheduled for noon on the second Wednesdays of each month – primarily via Zoom — that were primarily started with the design work began kicking into gear so they wouldn’t have to wait a whole month to discuss any changes necessary. The last few of those, however, have been cancelled due to lack of business that couldn’t wait, and the consensus was that they would not be needed for most months. Tom Potts, who has been acting as lead architect, said that once they begin getting into detailed design work, the need for those may pick up, so the group decided to keep that option available.
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