City will demolish annex building
By Kenneth Fine
Published in News on August 15, 2006 1:51 PM
Bulldozers will soon be hitting Center Street -- and another piece of the city's past will be coming down.
Goldsboro Assistant City Manager Tasha Logan said City Council members are expected to approve a bid from A&K Grading Monday, marking an early start for Phase III of the three-phase City Hall project -- the demolition of the city's annex building.
Last week, the city management team was told by council members to begin the bidding process and to present the best proposal for formal approval at their Aug. 21 meeting, Ms. Logan said.
"(City Council members) have agreed that they are ready for the building to come down," she said. "I think that once we made the decision to move the departments to the new facility, we realized we didn't have a need for the building."
The decision was also based on a desire to speed up construction of a new parking lot on the property and to allow more room for crews working on the renovation of the original City Hall, Ms. Logan added.
Upon formal approval of the roughly $20,000 bid, contractors will schedule a date for demolition, she said, adding she believes it will "happen soon after the bid gets council's approval."
The lot will be leveled and cleared, giving council members the option of starting work on the parking lot when they see fit, Ms. Logan said. Still, the lot will most likely go down "closer to the end of Phase II," she said.
Phase I, construction of the new City Hall, was completed earlier this year. Soon after staff moved into the facility, council members decided to order interior demolition inside the original building next door. Crews were given 45 days to complete the project, a schedule Ms. Logan said is on track.
"We're on schedule as far as the interior demolition goes," she said. "They are progressing through that very well."
Crews have finished asbestos removal on the top two floors, moved all paneling and carpet and exposed all the original walls, she added, a project designed to give contractors a better idea of what they will be working with.
Once the 45 days expire, staff will begin putting together bid documents for the remaining renovations inside the 1900s building.
Ms. Logan said she expects a bid to be awarded no later than December, to allow a full year for completion of Phase II, which will include renovation of the facility's interior and exterior, construction and installation of a bridge connecting the original City Hall to the new and cleaning and restoration of Liberty and Justice, the statues atop the building.
During renovations, regular meetings of the City Council will be held in the large conference room on the second floor of the new City Hall.