ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996 TAG: 9610230036
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
A new government office building financed by taxpayer-supported borrowing has remained largely empty for almost two months as Montgomery County and its intended occupants have haggled over the rent.
The Montgomery County Department of Social Services has yet to move into half of the health and human services building that was tailor-made for it. The project, approved by voters three years ago, had been plagued by design flaws and construction delays because of weather.
The central issue now is a shortfall created when the state refused to pay a higher rent for one-half of the brand-new building, located on Pepper Street, near the county courthouse. Now county and social services officials must decide how or whether the difference will be made up.
The Social Services Department pays $18,600 a year in rent for its present Roanoke Street office, which it also rents from the county.
Last week, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors approved a 25-year, $8,000-a-month lease with the New River Health District, making it the first tenant of the new county building. Later that night, the supervisors met in closed-door session with social services officials.
But the question of setting the cost of rent between the county and the Department of Social Services was not resolved.
Both plan to meet again Monday to tackle an agreement.
Asked if there's a chance social services won't move into the new building, the Rev. Harry B. Scott III, chairman of the county's Board of Social Services, said "We'll just have to wait and see."
Dan Farris, executive director of the Department of Social Services, said the supervisors "are wanting to make sure that the state is going to put up its end of commitment to the building in rent."
But Scott said social services needs more space than it has at its present location. He said the 1993 bond issue - which 60 percent of county voters approved - was predicated on the building being for the Social Services Department and that Farris was heavily involved in designing the structure with that agency in mind.
The rent that social services would pay the county would come from a combination of state and local revenue.
Jody Hershey, director of the New River Health District, said he expects the Montgomery County Health Department to move into its half of the new building next month. Environmental health workers are already in the building. The dental department, which is located in a trailer at Christiansburg Primary School, likely will move the first weekend of November, with the Radford Street office moving the following weekend.
Hershey said the delays in moving were mostly because of "the formality of getting leases signed and fine-tuning the inside of the building."
He said the Health Department had modular furniture on order that needed to be installed before the department could move in and be ready to operate.
The Health Department will see its yearly rent increase from about $10,000 to $96,000.
While that's a steep increase, the local and state Health Departments made a commitment to the new building because of the benefits it provides, Hershey said.
"Everybody sort of said, 'We're going to partner here and we're going to build this building.'"
Hershey said the building will consolidate three different Health Department facilities in Christiansburg, making the services "a whole lot more customer-friendly. It's one-stop shopping."
The Health Department lease of 12,000 square feet of the building becomes effective Nov. 1.
The 33,000-square-foot health and human services building was completed at the end of August. Originally scheduled for a March 1996 completion, the project was pushed back several times - first because of wet weather last year, then because of an October 1995 roof collapse that led the county to fire the Salem architectural firm that designed the building.
Kinsey-Shane & Associates was fired in December by the Board of Supervisors after an Oct. 28 collapse of wooden roof trussing over the centerpiece portion of the building.
After the collapse - initially attributed to high winds - then-County Engineer Martin O'Toole began checking into other areas of the structure and had some concerns.
The supervisors hired a Virginia Beach firm, The Design Collaborative, to pick up where Kinsey-Shane left off. Breakell Inc. General Contractors of Roanoke is the builder.
The total project cost is now at $3.42 million, about 18 percent more than the $2.9 million in voter-approved general obligation bonds. The difference will mostly be covered by $64,250 from Blacksburg and $293,700 from selling either one or both of the buildings now housing the Health Department and social services.
Staff writer Robert Freis contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. Though completed in late August, theby CNBnew Montgomery County health and human services building remains
largely vacant as officials have negotiated the rent for the Health
Department and the Social Services Department. color.