“I can’t believe my (tax) money is going to pay for this $5 million thing (Courthouse remodeling project).” Pepper that statement with a few well-chosen expletives and you get a sense of the kind of comments County officials such as Travis Barnes have been hearing in recent weeks regarding the cost of ongoing and soon-to-be-completed rebuilding projects.
Barnes, Facilities Manager of the County’s Long-Term Recovery Team, along with the County’s Project Coordinator Matt Christenson sat down Friday morning with The Signal to correct the seemingly widespread public perception the County is spending taxpayers’ money as wildly as the Obama Administration in an attempt to rebuild as quickly as possible facilities destroyed or damaged in the tornado of two years ago.
While it is true the total cost of remodeling the Courthouse—a project scheduled to come to an end with a July 10 ribbon cutting of the made over building—is just a tick under $5 million, the portion of that being covered by tax revenue is relatively small.
“This is a $5 million project, but only $800,000 of that is coming from the County, and of that only $300,000 (in the form of a USDA loan) will be coming from (future collections of taxes),” Christenson pointed out. “The other $500,000 (actually $500,263) is from money already held by the County—money that has been put aside in the building fund in years past.”
“But people hear this is a $5 million project and that’s the number that sticks with them,” Barnes added. “They assume the County’s covering all that and so will have to raise taxes to meet (that obligation). But that’s simply not the case.”
As the accompanying chart shows, beyond the $800,000 the County is contributing to the Courthouse project, another $1.86 million flows from insurance proceeds, while $315,000 and $42,000 is from FEMA and the State’s Department of Emergency Management, respectively. The balance is made up by a $1.923 million grant from USDA Rural Development.
FEMA’s share of the $3 million project to build new Road and Bridge facilities is considerably higher—nearly a million dollars—simply because that department’s resources were completely wiped out by the storm and the insurance proceeds of $309,000 were considerably less than that related to the Courthouse. FEMA’s payout is lower when a project is a remodeling rather than a rebuild and is based on the gap left after insurance proceeds and donations are taken into account.
The same holds true for the new sheriff’s office/jail being built on the same footprint as the old structure, which was again, damaged, but not completely destroyed. FEMA kicked in only $52,000 of the $3.2 million undertaking because of the so-called remodeling and comparatively lower insurance proceeds of $307,000.
All told, FEMA dollars will fund roughly 30 percent of the Road and Bridge project while only accounting for 6.4 percent of the Courthouse remodel and barely 1.6 percent of the new jail’s price tag.
No federal or state funds whatsoever will have gone toward the fairgrounds project centered around the new show barn and community building, primarily because of unforeseen developments, not the least of which was lousy weather last Labor Day weekend.
“We didn’t even bother asking for FEMA or state funds for that (fairgrounds) because the amount would have been so small since we had so many donations (many of which were in the form of materials and labor) toward that and FEMA treats donations like insurance money,” Christenson said, referring to the fact FEMA looks to pick up 75 percent of the cost of replacing what was in place before the disaster after insurance money and donations have been accounted for.
With the monsoonal weather of the first weekend of September the hundreds of New York Says Thanks volunteers were hampered from completing even half the barn raising that was planned, meaning the County had to hire a contractor from Hays to finish the job last fall. In addition a fair amount of volunteer union labor promised didn’t come through in the manner expected, meaning the County suddenly faced an unfinished job with little cash on hand to finish it.
The County is currently negotiating with a contractor out of Wichita to pare down its winning base bid to undertake only a fraction of what the $189,000 bid had entailed. “Right now we’re concentrating on getting sheet rock up in the community building to make it useable as soon as possible,” Christenson said.
In addition to those four projects three remain to enter the bidding process; namely, Phase II of the Road and Bridge facilities which entails primarily storage space, converting the former BTI shop to a fire station on the new hospital grounds and the Commons Building which will house the Media Center, County Library, County Historical Museum and new Extension Offices.
The continual delays on the new fire station are a study in Murphy’s Law meets local government, beginning with an expected Commerce Department Block Grant of $400,000 to purchase the land for the new hospital/fire station coming in at only $265,000.
“That meant that $100,000 we had marked to remodel the shed (into the fire station) had to go to finalize the property purchase and it’s been downhill from there,” Barnes said. “If this hadn’t started with that (shortfall in grant money) the conversion of that shed to fire station would have been done last winter. Now we’re hoping to go to bid next week and be finished by the end of the year.”
The Commons, meanwhile, will run “roughly $6 million” when it’s finished according to Christenson, of which only about two-thirds can currently be accounted for.
“We’re about $2 million short on that,” he said, “but we’re hoping to get as much as $1.5 million in the form of a USDA grant. The other half million we’d look to get in a revenue bond and right now we’re exploring devoting a portion of the county’s sales tax toward financing that.” Christenson also said he expects to “go to bid some time in September and get construction started (on the Commons) by the end of the year.” The Commons will be located directly south of the new City Hall, due to be finished some time in August.
Whether it’s in regard to ongoing construction or projects yet to get underway, Barnes said he thinks disgruntlement from the public over County expenditures for the rebuilding stems from a common source.
“From what I’ve heard from people there’s a lack of communication between the County and what you hear at the coffee shop,” he said. “I know Gene (West, County Commission Chair) wanted us to sit down with you (Signal) and try to put the public’s mind at ease on this as far as the assumptions they might be making as to where the funding is coming from. And I know Ron (Freeman, fellow commissioner) has been hearing comments from constituents.
“As things stand now, we’ll get this (rebuilding) done and without having to raise the mill levy. We’re looking at $1.2 million in general obligation bonds to finish the jail, Road and Bridge and Courthouse and the Commons and we’ve already accounted for that without an increase in the mill levy. So it’s not like we’re having to take more from the taxpayers to get this accomplished. That’s the main thing we want to get across.”
Greensburg, KS —
