After what Nantahala residents feel like was too long without action, on Dec. 13, the Macon County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved going forward with quarter-million-dollar renovations to the Nantahala Library/Community Center. However, the county decided against hiring an architect for the project.
“These folks are like me, they’re getting old, we can’t keep kicking the can down the road,” Chairman Paul Higdon said. “I know it’s a little stressful on everybody, but let’s give these folks in Nantahala a Christmas present. They’ve been very patient; they’re good people and it’s going to be a big improvement.”
County Planner Jack Morgan was tasked with coming up with a budget for the project. The budget to renovate what the “library wants and what the community club wants” would be $258,940 for the 2,400-square-foot building.
“It will be first class,” Morgan told the commissioners of the renovations.
County Manager Derek Roland told the commissioners there’s no requirement for an architect since the project currently is below $300,000. The county has $300,000 in state funding for the project, Roland told the board, plus a $23,500 contingency built in.
“We’re playing with house money,” Roland said.
Architect cost estimates range from $28,000 to $78,000, Morgan said. The big issue, according to Roland, was how to subdivide the work, which he said would be easier with an architect.
“Having an architect would enable us to put this scope of work into a plan where there is no second guessing what’s to be done on that scope of work,” Roland explained.
Morgan said with a hired architect, the bids wouldn’t be ready until March, and thus the project wouldn’t be finished until next winter. Without an architect, some of the sub-contractors could start as soon as possible, others would need a couple months, Morgan told the board.
“We could schedule most people where it would be, I would hope, almost seamless from start to finish, that we’d have someone working most of the time,” Morgan explained, later adding that many of the possible subcontractors are in Nantahala, but others are from Highlands, Sylva and Andrews.
Regardless of an architect, County Finance Director Lori Carpenter said this project will still need to be bid out and warned the commissioners of her office’s limitations.
“This method, with the county being the contractor without the architect, is a lot more work for finance [and] legal,” Morgan told the board. “It’s work we don’t have the capacity to do. I’m not an architect, I’m not an engineer, I can’t prepare plans and specifications. We prepare bid documents, but I can’t do plans and specs of what HVAC or electrical work needs to be done.”
Carpenter said the other risk is if the project balloons past $300,000, state general statute requires an architect. Roland said that happened with renovations to the Carpenter Community Building. Carpenter said the “snowballing” costs of that project came close to $900,000.
“Either way, we’re taking a chance. They’ve waited long enough,” Commissioner Danny Antoine said.
Commissioner Josh Young asked if there were people that would do the work. Morgan said it took him an extra month to find those people, but they are out there.
“I feel confident that the ones we talked to and gave us these cost estimates would be willing to do the work,” Morgan proclaimed.
Morgan said as far as drafting scopes of work, he said he would do “the best I can to my ability.” Young said if there was anyone else up there other than Morgan he would be skeptical.
Previously, as one Nantahala resident mentioned, an architect backed out of doing the project in the past and another said they heard the same conversation this time last year and that they’ve waited many years.
“We’d like to see some results,” a Nantahala resident explained during the discussion. “Let’s go.”