Pilot Mountain leaders recently expressed disappointment that Surry County was not going to help them with repair and renovation work to the Armfield Center. The Town of Pilot Mountain had asked the county to approve $148,425 for work at the Armfield Center that was not approved in next year’s budget.
Some of that disappointment was tempered by the fact the Surry County Board of Commissioners did fund the Charles H. Stone Memorial Library’s long festering need for elevator repair — a costly endeavor according to Friends of the Library.
Thankfully for the residents of Pilot Mountain, the county is not the only way to get things paid for.
Trust Fund pays out
The town was awarded a half million-dollar North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grant for repairs and renovations at Armfield. Work is to include renovations to the pool, gym, basketball court, replacing the walking track, construction of pickle ball courts, and Pilot Mountain Town Manager Boaz noted also a little spot was needed for cornhole.
“We feel like the best way to do that project is with a Construction Manager At-Risk,” he explained at the last town board meeting. “What that means is we hire a general contractor, and they are like any other contractor, but we agree on the price at the beginning and that is the price. That’s the most we can pay,” and if there are overages “that is on the contractor.”
The town only got one statement of qualification which came from Hayco Construction in Pilot Mountain. “They’ve done some projects like this at East Surry and new softball fields. I think they’ll do a great job,” Boaz said.
Commissioner Rachel Collins had questions about the bidding process and how companies were alerted to the request for bids. She said it seemed odd that there would be only one company to respond to the RFQ (request for qualification).
“I didn’t even see it,” said Collins, who works for I.L. Long Construction Co. Inc. In the end she felt it was a moot point as she assumed it would have been a conflict of interest for her company to apply for the project, but told her colleagues, “I didn’t see it until it was almost too late to reach out. I think one RFQ response for CM at risk is highly unusual.”
Boaz said the request has been posted for about a month and a half but did ask the commissioners if they would like him to seek out more bids.
“Maybe if we push this back a month we can see if we get a couple more,” Mayor Evan Cockerham suggested. To Collins he said, “I think if you didn’t see the request, it may be that’s an indication it can stay (posted) a little longer.”
Further discussion seemed to suggest Collins’ company could indeed apply for the project as long as she was not an owner or part of a profit-sharing model, meaning she would not benefit from the contract in any way above her normal salary.
Spend money to make money
“We need to make sure the Armfield Center is first of all structurally sound and then competitive enough to compete with 24-hour places,” Cockerham said, gently leading into the next topic.
He asked a question many area residents would love the answer to and would resolve some of the issues of competing against around-the-clock gyms. “Do you know how close we are to getting to where we can have 23-hour access to Armfield?”
Boaz said that an issue is being worked out with the door control vendor. “Its close. We know what we need to do, we’re just trying to get everything coordinated and get the electrical work done to have that work.”
“Part of our expenses initially was upgrading equipment, flooring, painting, a lot of capital expenses. I do think eventually we’ll get to where the center could be more self-sustaining it’s a matter of making that initial investment so that it is competitive. But I do think we can do a better job of making sure this public enterprise is accountable to the taxpayers,” the town manager said.
Commissioner Donna Kiger explained, “Living in town, we carry the whole burden to pay for the Armfield Center and I’ve been very vocal about how 1,500 people pay for the Armfield Center and in years past it’s been something like 80% of the membership is outside the town limits. It was a real concern to me when the town took it over.”
“However, I do think that the Armfield Center is a showpiece for the county and it’s unfortunate that we don’t get money for parks and recreation from the county budget. But we’re going to figure it out... We have to figure out a way to make it a win-win for everybody,” she said.
Needham added, “The thing that needs to be said is that we may never make ‘money’ off Armfield Center, but we’re going to ‘make money’ off Armfield Center because this is a community asset. Nobody wants to move or have their business or visit a community that doesn’t have quality of life and community assets.”
“So, it’s an indirect investment that we’re making for our community and that’s how we’re going to attract businesses and jobs and things like that... You gotta’ spend money to make money and we’re kind of in that spend money phase,” he added.
“Every time I show the Armfield Center to anybody that comes from the state or wherever, they say how great it is and it’s amazing we have something like that for the size of this community. I think we’re very blessed to have it.”
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