Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 14, 1995 TAG: 9502140136
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
A majority of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors questioned the increase and indicated plans may have to be scaled back to stay within the $2.9 million budget financed by voter-approved borrowing.
Using the lowest of eight bids opened last month, the project would cost $3.26 million, or $357,500 more than expected. That includes $157,500 in increased building costs and $200,000 to cover changes during construction.
Board members want the county staff and architects from Kinsey-Shane & Associates to answer a series of questions about a plan to pay for the increase. Under the proposal, the county would sell one or more of the properties that now have offices that would be relocated to the new building.
Board members also want to know why staff sizes have increased in human services offices and how that might affect the state's contribution to the project.
Chairman Larry Linkous said the board will use the answers to decide whether to pay for the difference or to slice space from the building.
The news could affect the long-delayed expansion and renovation of the Blacksburg branch of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library. The county budgeted that at $1.9 million from the same bond issue. Library supporters have talked for five months about the need to supplement the bond money with fund raising. The library construction is to go out for bids next month.
The 37,000-square-foot health building, though, lacks an organized support group.
The supervisors may have no one but themselves to blame for the cost increase. They delayed the bond sale from November 1993 - when 60 percent of voters approved it - until last fall to avoid a larger tax increase last year. Meanwhile, what had been a buyer's market for construction turned into a seller's dream because there's more work, letting contractors pick and choose.
By putting off the $4.8 million general obligation bond sale until November 1994, the county saved $389,000 in debt service, according to an estimate prepared for the 1994-95 budget. That figure - which would have equaled an additional 2 cent real estate tax increase - means the county saved just $31,500, compared with the increased health building cost and not taking into account any increase in the library construction price. The board raised the real-estate tax rate by 21/2 cents last year, its first major tax increase in three years.
Robert S. Fry of Kinsey-Shane said his firm prepared the $2.9 million estimate in August 1993. The firm was ``very specific to tell them it was for right then,'' Fry said. At the time, the estimate included $213,000 for contingencies, such as changes during construction. That figure has been entirely eaten up by inflation in building costs, Fry said.
by CNB