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Rehoboth approves budget, but City Hall issue still rankles

Commissioners tour building for first time
March 21, 2017

The Rehoboth Beach commissioners approved their 2017-18 budget, but the battle over the new City Hall project is still raging.

The budget, which goes into effect Saturday, April 1, passed by a 6-1 vote, with Commissioner Kathy McGuiness the only no. McGuiness had sought to delay approval of the $28 million budget until she could get answers to questions she had as to the funding of City Hall.

“I am not confident or comfortable with what’s before me,” she said.

The rest of the commissioners expressed their concerns about the process of building the new City Hall, but were secure enough to give a yes vote to this year’s budget at the commissioners’ March 17 meeting.

Commissioner Paul Kuhns said he was disappointed with the project’s cost overruns.

“It sounds like some of these things were items that were missed by the architect or items that were missed by the project manager,” he said. “My thing is, that’s money out of our pockets. Why do we have cost overruns?”

Kuhns, as well as Commissioner Patrick Gossett, said the city needs a new policy when it comes to change orders on municipal building projects the size of City Hall. Kuhns said decisions on change orders were made without input by the commissioners. When asked, Mayor Sam Cooper said the change orders were vetted by himself and City Manager Sharon Lynn, and that he made the call whether to approve a change order.

“I was not made aware of the change orders. I had to ask,” McGuiness said. “We need to be part of the conversation.”

Commissioner Stan Mills said he was concerned about maintenance of the building and whether the city will have sufficient funds to keep up its investment. Mills said he would also like to see a more transparent process for change orders when it comes to the city’s next major project: the $52.5 million ocean outfall.

The City Hall project - which Commissioner Lorraine Zellers said was more like a campus that includes the main City Hall building plus the parking and communications department building in the rear of the property - has been primarily funded by an $18 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, Cooper has said the building’s cost will likely be about $20.1 to $20.3 million.

“Am I happy with where we are? No, absolutely not. Am I happy that the city is going to have a City Hall that is worthy of the city? Absolutely,” he said.

To make up for the increased cost, the city has budgeted $1.3 million plus an additional $1 million from the city’s savings fund to complete the project. Kuhns said the city should come up with a revenue package by the beginning of next year to put back the money the city took out of its savings.

Cost overruns have resulted from a variety of factors, most notably the costs of the furniture for the building, $600,000, which will be paid for by the city out of two budget years, and landscaping costs to build a promenade from Second Street to the building. The city has also had to account for nearly $1 million in change orders to the project requested primarily by contractor Whiting-Turner. At this time, the city has approved $787,000 in change orders, with $282,000 worth still to be approved. Many of the change orders have resulted from elements of the plan that were due to be put in later in the project but had to be put in much earlier.

In addition, Cooper said, the city had hoped to get four bidders for the project, but only got two. While the city could have put the project off, he said that could have driven the price tag up another 20 percent.

Former Commissioner Walter Brittingham said the City Hall project has been poorly planned, and there has been no transparency with the public.

“Who is in charge of the municipal building? You haven’t voted for one thing on this. I don’t think anybody in this room knows what is in that building. That’s just ridiculous,” he said.

 

Commissioners get first look at new City Hall

Prior to the March 17 meeting, the commissioners took a tour of the new City Hall and were impressed with what they saw.

“I’m excited to see a dream being realized,” Mills said. “I think it’s a beautiful building that will serve us well into the future.”

The 40,000-square-foot facility will house all major city departments: administration, building and licensing, information technology, police and Alderman’s Court. Originally slated to open this summer, the new City Hall will instead open this fall.

“I think it will be a showplace for the city,” Zellers said. “It will be something we can grow into in the future.”

The basement floor will house the police locker rooms and additional space for future use. The top floor is divided into two sections, one half for city administration and one half for the police department. Visitors can enter either via Rehoboth Avenue, where there will be a kiosk to direct people to the appropriate place, or on the east side of the building, which will have a glass atrium and staircases leading to the second floor.

The majority of the police department will be secured with keycard access. The west side of the building has a sally port entrance that will allow secure transportation of suspects into the holding area. The police station has four jail cells: one for women, one for minors and two Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant cells for men.

The second floor has been divided into four quadrants: one section for building and licensing and IT, another section for the commissioners’ room and an adjacent meeting room. In the rear quadrant will be the Alderman’s Court, and the final quadrant will be the police offices. The chief’s office has the best view, with three windows looking out toward Rehoboth Avenue.

There is also a third floor that is a police training and emergency operations center, as well as space for future use.

“Rehoboth’s a first-class town, and it deserves a first-class City Hall. I think this will be it,” Cooper said.

Contractor Whiting-Turner did not allow photographs of the inside of the facility or allow their staff to be quoted on the record about the building’s features.

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