County to demolish moldy annex, erect new building

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Saturday, March 2, 2002

3:22 a.m. CT

County to demolish annex, erect new building

By Greg Cunningham

gcunningham@...

DUMAS - County's Lew Haille Annex soon will cease to exist after a

unanimous vote Friday by commissioners to tear it down and raise a new

county building in its place.

" This was a long, hard decision, " County Judge Kari said. " We

just decided that in the long run it would be better for the county to have

a new, modern building to house all the county offices. "

The status of the annex has plagued commissioners since May when

Stachybotrys chartarum mold was discovered inside, forcing the closure of

the building and the relocation of several county offices.

The plan approved Friday calls for commissioners to open the bidding process

for removal of the mold and asbestos March 7, with a contract awarded March

11, said.

Once the mold and asbestos are removed, the building will be demolished and

a new one built in its place.

Commissioners have estimates for the mold removal of $197,000 and demolition

costs of about $56,000. The cost of constructing a new building has not been

set, but the architectural firm the county hired gave an estimate of about

$100 per square foot.

A building the same size as the current annex, which is about 24,000 square

feet, would cost $2.4 million by that estimate. Commissioners aren't nearly

to the point of deciding how big the new building will be, but said

comparing the current size gives some idea of cost.

The decision to construct a building on the site competed with other options

as commissioners struggled to decide the fate of the annex over the past

several months.

Renovating the current annex was considered, but an estimate from the

architects for renovation was nearly as high as the price of a new building,

coming in at $2,025,140. said the commission decided against that

option because it would still leave the county with a 50-year-old building

ill-suited to the types of offices the county requires.

The idea of buying space in the strip mall where county offices have been

moved while the courthouse is renovated also was floated but dismissed

because of the distance from the courthouse and public rejection of the

idea, said.

" I'm very surprised at the input we've received from citizens asking that we

not locate there, " said. " Who knows what kind of business would be

there 10 years from now? All those businesses could move out, and we could

be left with an empty mall and a parking lot full of weeds. "

said it is too early in the process to know when the new building

will be completed, but she said she hopes it would be within two years.

Commissioners are considering a two-story building to leave more land on the

lot for future expansion. Preliminary plans call for enough room to move the

library and all county offices not in the courthouse into the new building.

said commissioners will work with the architects, department heads

and residents of County to create a building that will suit the

county's needs while maintaining a reasonable cost.

" We will always be cognizant of the fact that we are spending taxpayer money

on that building, " said. " It's not going to be this huge,

elaborate, fancy building. It will be something we can be proud of, but

we're not going to have gold faucets. "