Logan County Courthouse restoration and park updates

 

[November 05, 2021] 

At the Logan County Board Building and Grounds Committee meeting Tuesday, November 2, committee members heard updates on the courthouse restoration schedule.

Committee members present were Building and Grounds Chairman David Blankenship, Committee Vice Chairman Jim Wessbecher, Board Chairman Emily Davenport, Board Vice chairman Scott Schaffenacker and David Hepler.

There is a lot of activity going on in the Construction Technical Committee. (AKA the Tech Committee). Blankenship said they are reviewing several documents. He asked Project Manager Bill Walter of MRTS to give an update on scheduling and recommendations.

One document being reviewed is the Performance Contract. Walter said that contract covers the HVAC system and areas associated with trades that support it.
Next Wednesday, Walter plans to meet with CTS, the Tech Committee, architects and others about the performance contract. This meeting will be a question-and-answer session with document preparers. The responses will be primarily from the Tech Committee and MRTS. Walter said they will share what has been reviewed so far.

The information will next be presented to the Building and Grounds Committee. Walter said they will start reviewing pricing for the contract soon.

The Construction Management documents are 95 percent complete. Walter said this contract will go to the Tech Committee next for review by the end of next week. Around Thanksgiving, the information should be sent to the Building and Grounds Committee. Bid dates for this contract will likely be in mid-December or the first of January.

CTS will also be meeting with Walter and Blankenship next week. Walter said there may be some adjustments to the performance contract due to issues raised by the tech committee.
 

Walter also provided some updates on contracts and designs. Much of the work in this phase of the renovation is design and bid work, so many do not see the work going on.

HVAC

For the design blueprints, Walter said there are over 120 pages detailing the layout of the HVAC system and associated components. These blueprints show where and how the system is going to be placed. Demolition sheets show what is going to be removed in the existing system.

The specification and bid documents are over 500 pages. These documents electrical, plumbing and associated trades that support the HVAC system. The documents are intense and in depth. Walter said the Technical Committee has asked the document preparers intelligent questions. Some questions addressed conflicts or areas that were unclear. Walter said these areas have been taken care of as they have gone through the document review process.

Cupola update

Prices are in for the cupola restoration. Walter said three contractors have submitted bids and prices. These will be sent to Logan County State’s Attorney Brad Hauge for review. Walter is hoping to get bid approval and contracts in place soon.

Due to material availability and prices, there has been a delay on getting the copper. Walter said it may be eight to nine weeks before it arrives. They had hoped to get the copper in late November or early December, but now it may be January or February. While they wait for the copper, Walter said preparation work can be done on the cupola once the contractor is approved.

The cupola will be wrapped completely in plastic. Steel will be torn down and a platform created at the base of the cupola. The scaffolding on the dome will then be encapsulated on dome. Walter said that will allow them to begin the demolition and repair of the dome itself. The wrapping may be completed in two to three weeks because they already have the plastic.

There was an invoice from Restoric for $5,000 and Davenport asked what it was for.

Restoric has a contract with the county for over $38,000. Walter said this contract was to provide services to explore the cupola, take the outer layer of copper off and create shop drawings. These drawings are for the eventual fabrication of the copper on the cupola.
 

There has been exploration of the cupola because no one knew what the conditions were like underneath the initial layer. Walter said pigeon excrement has been removed from inside the cupola in preparation for further work.

The shop drawings by Restoric have been completed and Walter said the $5,000 invoice was for these drawings.

Restoric has been very successful in their work so far. Walter said it is because of their familiarity with the situation of the courthouse as well as the contractor from Restoric wanting to be the contractor for the dome restoration. Walter said the contractor from Restoric has also done the work because it puts him in a prime position to possibly be chosen for the whole dome restoration. Even though Walter said the county had to go out for bids from contracts, the more familiar one gets with the work, the more they know about what is needed.

Originally, the plan was to take the cupola offsite to restore it, but Walter said they found the cupola had a contiguous structural element with the dome. They would have to destroy elements if the cupola were taken off site, so they have decided to restore it in place. Since the cupola repair will be done in place, Walter said the cost will be less to restore it.

Photo Documentation of the restoration

The committee also discussed utilizing the services of a photographer during the courthouse restoration. These would provide historic documentation.
 

Blankenship had contacted Nick Fetty, who is a photographer and videographer for the marketing agency he works for.

Currently, Fetty is documenting expansions at his agency and renovations at a historic mansion in Bloomington. He is working on getting licensed as a commercial drone operator.

For documenting the work by photos, Blankenship asked whether it could be done in phases.

With other restorations Walter has done, he said they generally follow a set schedule for having photographs taken. He said they could have a photographer come once a week to take photos of predetermined activities.

The photographer may get additional calls when something unexpected is being done. Walter would like to have a series of photos on a loop. These photos will be used to show the process on a video screen.

Some phases of the restoration will take months and require numerous visits. Blankenship said he could provide a list and let Fetty bid accordingly.

Since there would be many photos, Fetty wanted to know exactly what they are looking for.

Blankenship asked if Fetty would suggest doing bids for a certain number of photos.

Usually, Fetty said he does photography by project and not phases. He is willing to capture what the county asks for. Fetty said he would then relinquish the rights to the photos. The county could use them for whatever is needed.

Logan County Circuit Clerk Kelly Elias asked if they were looking for a “story book” on the renovation.

Though Blankenship is mainly looking for historic documentation, he said he is open to ideas.

To get started, Hepler said the committee should probably request proposals from photographers. In addition to Fetty, other photographers would have a chance to submit their proposals.
 

Once the board decides what they want, Tech Committee member George Mencken said they could then go out for bids.

Update on projects in Scully Park and Latham Park

Some of the funds from the American Rescue Plan Act may be used for renovations in Latham and Scully Parks. However, Blankenship is unsure of what all may be approved.

One possible project in Latham Park is renovating the bandstand. Davenport asked if there were bids.

Right now, Walter said there is a budget of $8,500 for some work.

Due to the age of the bandstand, there is some deterioration. Blankenship said pieces of the walls are falling out and the roof is busted and leaking. Additionally, there are elevation problems with the concrete. Some serious repairs are needed.

Remediation could be done on some of the bandstand. Walter said the rest could be upgraded later. He asked if they need more development for the bandstand.

Because winter is coming soon, Davenport said it may be better to wait until spring to do most of the work.

For now, Blankenship said they could do some of the preliminary design work.

To upgrade Scully Park, the park is supposed to be getting new playground equipment. Davenport asked whether that was set for November.

Blankenship said putting in the playground equipment is still set for November. He is meeting with the contractor this week.

With the work on the Scully Park Fountain, Walter said there have been delays on getting some of the materials. These include some of the electric items.

Because of the pandemic, one manufacturer went out of business, so Walter and the contractor modified what they were looking at. He said they will order all the materials now and should have them available by the spring.

Additional design changes have been made. Walter said the original contractor has been working on another job, so he had to push this one back anyway.

[Angela Reiners]