Published: August 10, 2009 10:36 am      

Carr: Newton to explore options on building repair

By Jennifer Jacob Brown

jbrown@themeridianstar.com

The public works storage building in Newton has been in a rapidly escalating state of disrepair for quite some time, and not much has been done about it. But now, a conflict may have brought forth a solution.

According to Newton Mayor David Carr, workers became so upset about the state of the building Wednesday that Public Works Director Jerry Bounds asked Carr if he could give workers a half day off.

After a board of aldermen meeting Tuesday resulted in no action taken on the building's poor state, Carr said, "I guess their frustration just sort of reached a boiling point."

Carr said, "There was no walk-off. There was no strike." But that one worker asked to take the rest of the day off, and he and Bounds decided to offer the same time off to the other workers.

Some of the aldermen took issue with that decision, saying in a special called meeting that they ought to have been consulted first.

But what began as a conflict between the aldermen, the mayor, and the public works department, may end with all of them coming together to solve the problem that started the conflict in the first place — the sorry state of the building in question.

Carr said the building has been deteriorating for years because of a leaking roof that was never repaired. The leak caused out-of-control mildew problems, ruined some sheetrock, and damaged tile and other parts of the building, along with creating puddles that workers had to walk through when in the building.

Carr said the building is used mainly to store supplies and equipment. "There's not really any offices in there," he said. "It's basically a storage building... The only time the men are really in there is to pick up supplies or maybe run in there to use the bathroom. If it's a rainy day they might hang out in there to get out of the rain (because they work outdoors)."

But the general consensus is that, even for a building that people only enter for short periods at a time, it's in a sad state. Now that new attention has been called to the state of the building, Newton officials are looking at options for repair.

Carr said those options will be discussed at a previously scheduled work session of the board of aldermen Tuesday. He said the options include waiting for a grant, which would likely take at least six months, before working on the building or finding the funds to begin to repair the building right away. Another possibility, he said, is to complete only the most urgent repairs now, and wait for a grant to fund additional repairs.

"We can come up with the money to fix it," said Carr, "but it's going to strain things."

Easily the main problem, and that from which all the other problems stem, he said, is the leaking roof. "Once we stop the leak," he said, "then we can take care of the rest of it a little bit at a time."

Because the building is used for storage and not as an office, Carr said it is not likely that anything besides necessary repairs will be considered. In other words, the building will see repairs, but no makeover.

"We're not looking at putting in fancy tile or anything like that," Carr said. The building will be made "tolerable," not enviable.

Carr said he expects all the necessary information about the town of Newton's options for the building to be ready in time for Tuesday night's work session, which was called to discuss the budget. He said he expects the board of aldermen to pass the budget at the following regular meeting, and said they are likely to take some sort of action on the building repairs during the same meeting.