The ribbon has been cut and the Surry County Health and Nutrition Center reopened from its renovation last month. Monday evening, the Surry County Board of Commissioners were given an update on lingering charges from the renovation and were presented with an unexpected piece of bad news regarding the heath department’s sewer system.
Tony Chilton of North State Design Group returned to the board Monday with a request to pay some of the last bills associated with the project. With more information provided, the board voted to accept the change order of $37,130 which took the total overage on the project to $204,620.
“Last month we went over these and with that we needed additional clarification especially for the fire shutters. We met with county staff and went over the details,” he explained.
Commissioner Larry Johnson sits on the Board of Health and shared that manual fire shutters were installed, and they work fine, but are heavy and slow. He recommended the county replace them with the electric fire shutters. When the process is over, he joked, the manual shutters would belong to Chilton.
Chilton said the wrong equipment had been installed by accident. Due to that, he volunteered to eat $6,935 of the change order to do an oversight.
“I have raised my hand to volunteer that to the county and the contractor would bill me directly. That is because during the process I don’t have any records, and I keep very good notes... to require an electric fire shutter as opposed to manual shutters but I feel in my heart that this happened,” he said.
Chilton also alerted the board that another change order was coming in August for wiring on security doors; the plan called for 21 but there are 25 doors that need wiring for an additional $4,000.
Commissioner Eddie Harris and Chairman Van Tucker had voted to approve the change order at the June 3 meeting but were met with no votes from Johnson and Vice Chair Mark Marion; Commissioner Bill Goins was not in attendance that evening. Tucker said Monday he had been in favor of approving the change order in June given the total would with change orders would equate to “under a 5% threshold of increase.”
Goins expressed disappointment that the bills were still coming in and the board had been down this road before. “I asked in our budget meeting if this was it, and I was told yes and here we are... Is that (total) going to be it?”
Chilton answered in the affirmative, “To the best of my knowledge, yes.”
Johnson was holding a piece of information others on the board were not aware of. “We got a big problem down there — half of our septic system that used to work, don’t work now. So, whose fault is that?”
“It worked real good but when we add on and make some changes now it don’t work. So, we got a dilemma there... So no, this is not going to be a final thing,” he said to Goins.
“Somebody’s at fault. Is it the owner’s fault? Did we flush it too many times? Whatever it is, I don’t know, but we still got a big issue there that only half of the health department has to go to one side of the building to use the bathroom,” Johnson said.
Chair Van Tucker asked if this was more likely attributable to new construction on the site or perhaps some of the older cast iron pipes gave way, “They finally just saw their day come?”
Johnson said that answer was still “being worked on. So no, Commissioner Goins, this is not the final thing because a punch list hasn’t been done, still probably far from it.”
Vice Chair Mark Marion said that while he had also previously voted against the change order, he was in support of it now, “I guess everything was cleared up, so I’m good.”
In other board news,
- The board approved a resolution for the county to sign on to another round of opioid settlements this time from the grocery chain Kroger, the third largest grocery chain in the nation, which will bring over $40 million to be distributed to local and county governments throughout the state. There are no branded Kroger stores left in North Carolina but as of 2014 the chain owns Harris Teeter.
- County Manager Chris Knopf advised the board that two qualified proposals from companies interested in conducting the Fire Service Study. Both NC Fire Rescue Innovative Solutions, LLC and Emergency Services Consulting International were evaluated and ranked in several categories. The seven member panel assessed firm qualifications, personnel qualifications, similar project experience, as well as project understanding, approach, and methodology.
The selection committee chose NC Fire Rescue Innovative Solutions, LLC to conduct a survey of fire services in the county and make recommendations on possible changes which may include adding additional paid staff. The panel chose them in part because they felt the company had more experience with NC County fire service in different counties, had dedicated twice the personnel to the study, and their proposal felt “personalized to Surry County.
- Finally, the board recognized the Surry County 10U All-Star Baseball Team who won the Cal Ripken Western NC State Championship in late June.
Head Coach Matt Swift said, “These guys came up a little short last year and they’ve put in the time. They are a little bit mischievous; they may smell funny... but they are a gritty group, and they represent Surry County very well.”
“I coached a couple of those state championship tournaments, but never got to win one. We’re really proud of you,” Vice Chair Mark Marion said before reading the commendation for the coaches and players.
The team plays in Alexandria, Virginia, in the regional championship tournament and winners advance to the 10U World Series in August.
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