Three buildings coming down: Library board eyes levy, various upgrades

By SALLY BOYD

Gazette Neigh­bors Editor

BVUlifestyle@civitasmedia.com

Down­town Belle­vue will take on a whole new look early this spring with the planned demo­li­tion of the three build­ings located at the cor­ner of South San­dusky and East Main Streets.

Owned by Belle­vue Pub­lic Library, the removal of the build­ings was for­mally set in motion at a spe­cial board of trustees’ meet­ing on Wednes­day when con­tracts were approved for the abate­ment of asbestos and demolition.

The board has owned the vacant build­ings for sev­eral years and, after months of study, has finally been able to begin the process to cre­ate what will be green space and expanded parking.

In addi­tion, along with the planned demo­li­tion of what was most recently a large apart­ment build­ing, for­mer movie the­ater and pizza shop, the board is look­ing to pro­vided some much needed main­te­nance, expan­sion and ren­o­va­tions to the present library build­ing at 224 E. Main St.

In order to improve the cur­rent build­ing, a 0.67-mill bond issue will be placed on the May 7 bal­lot for the pur­pose of cap­i­tal main­te­nance and improvements.

That includes some remod­el­ing, expan­sion of the entrance, con­sol­i­dat­ing the check-out sta­tions from two to one, some foun­da­tion work, mak­ing the build­ing more acces­si­ble, improv­ing restrooms and address­ing mois­ture in the build­ing, accord­ing to library Direc­tor Molly Carver.

In the recent issue of the library’s newslet­ter, Books to Bytes, Carver stated, “The major­ity of the bond pro­ceeds will be used for build­ing main­te­nance projects that go beyond the scope of the gen­eral oper­at­ing budget.

“Exten­sive main­te­nance projects, such as exte­rior masonry work, foun­da­tion repairs and inte­rior plas­ter repairs will be done to pre­serve our his­toric Carnegie build­ing,” she noted.

“Inte­rior paint­ing, car­pet­ing and ren­o­vated restrooms will restore com­fort­able spaces for the pub­lic. A redesign of the library entrance and staff work spaces will increase effi­ciency and improve accessibility.”

On Wednes­day, Carver stressed that the library board has “not been able to address these needs because of the big state bud­get cuts, the bulk of which occurred in 2009.”

Carver said a bond issue allows “the work to be done as one project and main­tains the library’s gen­eral fund rev­enue for annual oper­at­ing expenses.”

The bond issue will raise $2.8 mil­lion to be used for cap­i­tal projects only and will be paid back over 28 years.

It will cost home­own­ers of an $80,000 home approx­i­mately $16.64 annu­ally or $1.38 per month, she added.

The direc­tor noted that it has been 26 years since finan­cial assis­tance was pro­vided to the library. In 1987, a bond issue was passed which allowed for exten­sive improve­ments to be made; those improve­ments and redesigns were opened to the pub­lic in 1989 with lit­tle changed since then.

Main focus of Wednesday’s meet­ing, how­ever, was the issuance of con­tracts for the abate­ment of asbestos and demo­li­tion of the three vacant build­ings to the imme­di­ate west of the library.

Before award­ing the con­tract for asbestos abate­ment to Total Envi­ron­men­tal Ser­vices, of Toledo, which had the sec­ond low­est bid, the board first “abated” a protest from a Safeco Envi­ron­men­tal, Point Mar­ion, Pa., which had sub­mit­ted the low­est bid.

With San­dusky County Assis­tant Pros­e­cu­tor Nor­man Solze sit­ting in on the meet­ing, the board rejected the chal­lenge of Safeco Environmental.

Brett Brum­baugh, of Brumbaugh-Herrick, Inc., Mon­clova, envi­ron­men­tal, health and safety con­sul­tants, rec­om­mended Total Envi­ron­men­tal Ser­vices’ bid of $65,604, slightly higher than Safeco’s $62,000 bid.

“Safeco rep­re­sen­ta­tives did not attend the (library’s) pre-bid meet­ing or the sec­ond sched­uled build­ing walk-through to tour the build­ings,” he added.

“Since they did not visit the site prior to sub­mit­ting a bid, it raises a red flag as to poten­tial requests for change orders should the project present site issues or con­di­tions they did not observe dur­ing a walk-through,” Brum­baugh said, adding that Total Envi­ron­men­tal did attend both the pre-bid meet­ing and the walk-through.

“I have a high level of com­fort in the abil­i­ties and track record of Total Envi­ron­men­tal to com­plete this project as spec­i­fied,” said Brum­baugh. He pointed out that Total Envi­ron­men­tal is the same com­pany which very recently com­pleted asbestos removal from the now-demolished for­mer Belle­vue School Dis­trict buildings.

Brum­baugh said work on the asbestos removal will prob­a­bly start within three weeks. He esti­mated that project should take about one month to complete.

The next step will be demo­li­tion of the three buildings.

Board mem­bers on Wednes­day also accepted the low bid of $74,100 sub­mit­ted by Mod­er­alli Exca­vat­ing, Inc., Poland, Ohio. A time­line for demo­li­tion was not established.

Demo­li­tion of the build­ings will begin after the asbestos abate­ment has been com­pleted. Funds for the asbestos abate­ment and demo­li­tion have been raised, Carver said, not­ing the board had to hold the bids for 90 days until appro­pri­ate fund­ing could be obtained.

Posted by Becky Brooks on Feb 2 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.