Goldsboro City Council hears plans for Air Force museum
By Ty Johnson
Published in News on November 20, 2012 2:18 PM
The Goldsboro City Council was briefed for the first time Monday night by members of the consultant team hired to plan the city's proposed Air Force Museum and will have about three months before its members will evaluate the design and costs in earnest.
In the meantime, the city will continue work on evaluating fundraising options for the museum, which, as presented, would require $335,000 annually in unearned revenue to operate a balanced annual budget.
Besides that necessary financial support, construction of the museum would cost $2.5 million and exhibits would cost $3.5 million.
Not included in those costs, which amount to $6,021,252, is the 10 to 15 percent of the capital budget which is estimated to be used for fundraising, endowment and pre-opening operations. A conservative, 10 percent estimate of the fundraising costs, which the consultants said they envisioned, would be about $600,000.
The city's inspections department estimated asbestos removal, also excluded from the $6 million total, would cost $235,000 to $250,000.
Other enhancements considered out of the scope of the consultant's plans are repairing the joints of the building's facia ($55,000), repairing and replacing the roof ($95,000) and preparing the bid for those repairs.
The asbestos abatement and structural repairs were estimated to cost $405,500. Alternatively, tearing the building to the ground would cost $310,000.
If the city went forward with the project, as presented, using minimum ranges, it would cost just less than $7 million.
Dan Murphy, a member of the consultant team, characterized the budget as a responsible one for a museum that seeks to be a regional destination, not a local or national one.
An executive summary was presented to each council member identifying the major components of the museum and the planning process.
The City Council didn't have much to say to the consultants or the handful of committee members present at the work session outside of Mayor Pro Tem Chuck Allen's comments on the hard work put into the plans.
He thanked both the committee members and the consultants for the plans, noting that regardless of whether the city decides to move forward, the city now has a better idea of what it would take to create its museum.
"We know a whole lot more now than we did when we started," Allen said.
The consultants were in town for their final meeting this morning at a community forum where the public's reaction to the plans will be solicited and factored into the final report.