By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
Carter County fiscal court hoped to preserve the stone in the old Carter County jail building, and utilize the historic blocks for various county projects. However that may be a dream the county will be forced to pass on.
Judge Executive Mike Malone called a special meeting on Monday to discuss the jail issue, which included a tour of the jail and property so magistrates could better appreciate the issues the county would need to address with any demolition plan.
Prior to the tour Malone explained to the magistrates that he had already toured the facility with country attorney Brian Bayes and construction and demolition consultant John McDavid.
“This is a lot bigger job, with a lot bigger headache, than I realized,” Malone told the court. “This is not a normal building teardown, (and) I wanted you to see what we’re up against.”
While the report fiscal court had solicited to inform their bid process revealed at least one bit of good news – there was no actionable amount of asbestos found in the building – it also revealed how involved any process to preserve the stones would be.
“It will cost us more to preserve the stone than the rest of the job,” Malone said.
In addition, interior walls in the basement area, used to create extra cell space below the jailhouse living space, will have to be completely removed so that soil can settle properly after the demolition. This is necessary for any future use of the property, whether for building or parking space. In addition, the concrete flooring of the space will need broken up to facilitate drainage. Otherwise, Malone said, the property will simply “become a pond” over time.
The process was going to be so complicated, given the tight space and the care needed to remove the blocks without causing the rest of he structure to collapse into the street or the courthouse, that Malone said he couldn’t properly convey it in words.
“You have to see it for yourself,” Malone told the magistrates.
Before touring the property, magistrate Morris Shearer asked Malone bluntly about the potential costs.
“Are we looking at a high dollar project here?” Shearer asked.
“Possibly,” Malone replied.
Bayes, who has experience in the trades and previously toured the property with Malone and McDavid, said regardless of what was done with the stone, the court would have to attach stipulations to bid advertisements about pricing for proper support to keep the building from collapsing into other structures as it was taken down. Whoever won the bid, he said, should also be responsible for providing any traffic flagging and redirection necessary as part of the demolition.
While the county would still like to preserve the stone, Malone said, the priority was to get the building down.
After touring the building, which was built by the WPA and dates to the 1930s, magistrates seemed to turn their attention from saving the stone for county use, to using the value of the stone as a bargaining chip to keep demolition costs lower.
Magistrate Chris Huddle said he would like the court to explore allowing someone else to salvage the stone, to save on the costs of taking the building down.
Malone said no matter which way the court ended up going, utility connections, which enter the courthouse at the old jail, would need to be relocated. He said he would reach out to the utility providers to begin that process, and would get with Richard Howerton about revising their bid package to reflect their new needs.
McDavid reminded the court that they would need to specify in their bid package that if a contractor wants to salvage the stone, they need to remove it from the demolition site before it was sorted.
After going into executive session to discuss personnel issues, the court returned and approved a motion to hire McDavid to supervise bid tours of the property and bid inquiries, with his wage capped at $7,500.
They also approved a motion to solicit bids for the jail demolition, to help determine the possible cost of the demolition.
“This is not an authorization to go ahead (with demolition),” Malone said. But, he said, it will help the court determine what the cost of various demolition options are before they proceed.
“We need to determine the cost of the demo before we can do it,” Malone said.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
