Additional steps toward demolition, geotechnical work for justice-center site get nods

By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
A local firm was chosen Wednesday to do geotechnical surveying work at the future site in Glasgow of a justice center for Barren County, and an advertisement for bids for demolition of the existing structures should be coming soon.
One of the first orders of business at the regular, primarily streamed via Zoom, meeting of the project development board for the justice center, though, was that Brian Estep, a member of the architectural design team, advised that it appeared that three variances from city development standards would need to be requested from the Glasgow Board of Adjustment.
Estep said they need a smaller right of way for Ford Drive, which will be somewhat relocated, a different slope for that street as it meets West Main Street and an exception regarding a lack of a sidewalk on the opposite side of it from the justice center.
American Engineers Inc. is working on any exhibits that would need to accompany the request, he said, and the deadline for that submission is Jan. 26 to get it on the agenda for the Board of Adjustment’s February meeting.
Board member Rich Alexander, who is also the city attorney for Glasgow, had been in a meeting with Tommy Gumm, whose company Alliance Corp. has construction management responsibilities, and Richard Tutt with AEI, and agreed with Estep’s synopsis.
“I feel comfortable in making the motion authorizing that we engage in that application for the variance with the Board of Adjustment, just getting that paperwork filed by the deadline,” he said.
After a quick clarification question from Barren County Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Bryd, who chairs the justice center project development board, those present voted unanimously to move forward with those steps. Board member Joan Norris was absent.
Otherwise, Estep had said, “we are continuing to make a lot of progress with design development, the Phase B portion of the project.”
He said the design team has wrapped up meetings with the court-designated worker staff and special courts staff.
“We got a lot of really good feedback on those spaces from those folks and are in the process of making any revisions that we needed to make based on the feedback we received from them,” Estep said.
Gumm provided the update on the geotechnical proposals, noting the deadline for those was at 2 p.m. Monday. Two proposals were received by the deadline and one, which he did not name, came an hour and 16 minutes past that closing time, he said.
AEI’s proposal came with a price of $21,350, and Arnold Consulting Engineering Services Inc.’s was $28,400.
He said that one of the architects noted there was something that may have been left out of the Arnold proposal that was in the original scope of work, but that omission would not end up coming into play, because AEI had the better price and was in compliance with the scope of work, so the recommendation was to accept the AEI proposal.
That recommendation was unanimously approved by those present, and Gumm said he would notify that company of the choice and give them authorization to proceed. He added he would like to see at least the field information completed by the end of February.
Mark Bannister, a court facilities officer for the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts, reported that the AOC legal team had finished reviewing the demolition bid-specification documents and had suggested a few items that needed tweaking.
“So we should have that shovel ready here shortly, if you will, on being able to bid out the demo work,” Bannister said.
Byrd asked him to be more specific about what he meant by “shortly,” because she wondered whether they should plan to have a special-called meeting before the next regular one to approve the documents.
Bannister and some of the board members said they believe that step had already been taken, but to be on the safe side, they could go ahead and vote again with the contingency that the documents would be AOC approved, and this was also unanimously approved by those present at the time.
Gumm said they would have a mandatory prebid meeting to get the bidders the opportunity to go inside the buildings, which have already undergone abatement of hazardous materials such as asbestos, to see what would be involved.
“I’m excited for that,” Byrd said of the movement on the demolition process.
“It feels like progress, doesn’t it,” said Circuit Judge John T. Alexander, vice chair for the board.
“It’s exciting,” Byrd confirmed.
The next regular meeting is at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 31 in Fiscal Court Chambers on the third floor of the Barren County Government Center.