GREENFIELD — Increased construction costs and unanticipated underground site preparation have led to a request for an additional $529,271 for the Olive Street parking garage.
City Council voted this week to table a request to repurpose the $529,271 from excess money raised to cover Hurricane Irene damage. Several councilors said they needed more information about the situation. The 274-space project is now estimated to cost $10.7 million.
Margo Jones of Jones-Whitsett Architects, associate for the project, explained that while engineers knew the site of the garage was on bad soil, additional problems were found, including subterranean stone foundations that had to be removed.
“It was budgeted four years ago and everything has gone up,” she added. “There’s a 4 percent increase in construction costs per year, and that’s just the cost of doing business.”
Jones said without the additional $529,000, certain architectural amenities — including mesh screening that would cover part of the concrete structure, giving it more visual character — would have to be cut from the budget, and the entire project could be in jeopardy.
She said the mesh screening costs $176,000, lighting about $15,000 and aluminum columns $139,000.
“We’ve already done a lot of value engineering,” she said. “It’s part of making the building to scale of the neighborhood and to fit into the downtown.”
The $529,000 would come from a FEMA reimbursement for Hurricane Irene damages. By the time the reimbursement was processed by FEMA, the city had already borrowed the money to cover the cost of repair projects. Under state law, only $50,000 of the reimbursement can go to paying down borrowing.
“We looked at this and said we have a need, so why don’t we reappropriate this money?” Town Accountant Elizabeth Braccia said. “If we don’t spend all of this, we can reappropriate it again, so it’s not like it goes away.”
But several city councilors said they still had questions about the project.
Precinct 3 Councilor Brickett Allis said while he may vote in favor of repurposing the money for the garage at a later date, he would like a better understanding of what could be cut from the project.
“I’m tired of having information that is lacking, that is incomplete and comes last minute,” he said. “We see that a lot.”
At-Large Councilor Isaac Mass said he has heard conflicting sets of numbers about the cost of the project, as well as revenue projections.
“I don’t know what’s true and what’s not true; that’s why I need the time to sit down and sift it all through,” Mass said.
Mayor William Martin said current projections for parking garage revenue are more than $200,000 per year, which would cover the expected annual debt payments.
The council voted to table the request to a date uncertain, which will be determined at next month’s committee chairs meeting.
The mayor cautioned that the final orders for the garage will be done in late February, so the city must have funding finalized by Feb. 15 to move designs and construction forward.