The plan to consolidate the Henderson government in the Operations & Service Center looks promising enough to keep moving the project forward after a presentation by contractor Energy Systems Group on Tuesday.
City Engineer Frank Frazier said in an interview that it looks like the combined energy savings from closing the Municipal Building and installing highly efficient lighting and making other changes in city-owned buildings will more than pay for all of the renovations. In other words, the renovations will quickly pay for themselves and for turning the Operations Center into the new City Hall.
“Basically, the council members present felt like what they had was good so far,” Frazier said. “They want to get more information.”
The design won’t be as fancy as the concept presented a year ago by an architect the city hired, Surapon Sujjavanich, whose scope of the project came with a $450,000 estimated price. That cost appeared to kill the idea of moving the city government down Beckford Drive.
But council member Mike Rainey pushed to put the project back on the front burner during council meetings and budget discussions this spring, and he picked up the support of Mayor Clem Seifert and others.
“The whole concept is to put everything under one roof,” Rainey said. That way, city employees will have easier access to one another and won’t have to drive up and down Beckford Drive to communicate. “By doing this, we would eliminate the expense of running City Hall as it is now.”
Council member Elissa Yount listed some of the advantages of the Operations Center: accessibility, parking, ease of getting around, amount of light and spaciousness.
Energy Systems Group stepped up with a way to pay for the move: reducing energy spending through a series of energy-efficient renovations in city-owned buildings. In 2004, when the contractor was still Progress Energy Solutions, ESG began studying the potential savings from retrofitted lights and other fixtures. This spring ESG revived the work, now aimed at squeezing out enough savings to pay for the Operations Center overhaul.
Tuesday’s work session on the project was productive, council member Elissa Yount said, because ESG was well-prepared. “We accomplished a lot.”
“I thought it was an excellent presentation,” Rainey said in an interview. “It was well received by everybody.”
Besides Rainey and Yount, council members John Wester and Lonnie Davis attended the work session.
The plans call for new lights and other energy-saving renovations at the two city fire stations, the Operations & Service Center, the water plant, the wastewater plant and the Aycock Recreation Complex — basically, every city building except the police station and the Embassy Square library, which are new facilities built with efficient lighting.
The additional savings from shutting down the Municipal Building — up to $400,000, Yount said — make the move to the Operations Center feasible.
“It shouldn’t cost us a thing,” Rainey said. By state law, ESG would have to sign a contract guaranteeing the energy savings. If the savings did not meet expectations, as has been the case under a similar project to increase energy efficiency in the Vance County Schools, ESG would have to make up the difference and correct whatever caused the shortfall.
In addition, the city could get a one-time windfall from the sale of the Municipal Building and its prime real estate. Yount said the conservative estimate is that the sale would bring the city government $300,000.
Rainey said that money could help boost the general fund balance with unrestricted money.
The overhaul of the Operations Center would involve lowering the ceiling, installing new lighting, utilities and the anti-fire sprinkler system, and building cubicles and offices, some of which would be on the second floor. The new ceiling would use acoustic tile; the hope is that the special tile plus the carpeting would improve the sound quality in the building, a former Lowe’s Home Improvement store.
The city government would bring its current office furniture and equipment from the Municipal Building to the Operations Center.
“They’re eager to go with it,” Rainey said of ESG.
Frazier said the ESG proposal needs some tweaking but is basically sound.
Rainey said the council members had questions about the locations of cubicles and offices and wanted to be sure the ceiling was lowered over existing offices, not just the new space.
He said he was concerned about the council chambers, which would be on the right side of the building. Without a lower ceiling there, Rainey said, closed council sessions could be heard by people waiting outside the chambers.
Yount suggested moving the council chambers and a few surrounding offices into vacant space at the police station if there’s not enough room or good enough sound quality at the Operations Center, but she said the idea did not have much support.
ESG will take the council members’ questions and requests and return in about two weeks with more details and revised plans. If the council gives the project the go-ahead, Yount said, ESG could finish the Operations Center overhaul in four to six months.
By the end of next summer, Rainey said, the city government could be in its new home. “The plan is good,” he said. “There are a few concerns. We need to iron those out and go forward.”