CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Commission is continuing discussing with its team of architects on potential renovations to the Kanawha County Judicial Building.
The commission and the team of Silling Architects are in a 30-day discussion window MCS Construction, the lowest-bidding construction company for the project that is now 60% over budget barrier.
The project, which is supposed to be a three-phase construction and renovation of the building on Court Street, is currently sitting at $16.2 million, $6.2 million over the projected $10 million. The project is intended to make more space for new areas for magistrates and circuit judges.
Lance Wheeler
Kanawha County Commission President Lance Wheeler says this would give too much debt to taxpayers.
“This is putting taxpayers more in debt,” Wheeler said Wednesday. “We were proud to say in 2023 that we were going to be debt free, now we knew there would be some debt associated with this project, but not as much as we’re talking about.”
The original project aimed to see changes to the first and fifth floors, while the second phase is a small fitting out of the addition between the building and the parking garage, and the third phase would deal with the day court spaces.
While the commission is not happy about the project being 60% over the budget, not much has been done between the parties in shaving off some of the large cost. The project is not simple by any means, as night work and a limited schedule to stay out of the way of judicial business prevents a timely process.
Jody Driggs of Silling Architects, says the conversations had with low bidding company have not indicated they want to move off their price.
“I felt like we had a transparent conversation with the bidder. They explained that they felt that they had put together a reasonable and competitive bid, but when we started to talk about what we perceive to be the complexities of the project, night work, condensed schedule, the contractor sort of suggested that there was very, very little dollars associated per bid that were assigned to those particular complexities, which would suggest to us that they were generally not willing to revise their proposed price,” Driggs said.
Commissioner Ben Salango says this has put the Commission in a tight spot.
“We’re put in a position to either pay more than we wanted to pay or scrap the project and start over,” Salango said.
The Commission will have the option to scrap the project when they meet again on November 4. Wheeler says he’s ready to make a decision before that.
“I’d be ready to make a determination to say yes or no by the 29th (of October),” Wheeler said. “I don’t know if there’s going to be any changes through Halloween, but I think that’s going to be the day that we either say yes or no because this price tag is just too expensive.”
Ben Salango
Salango says he sees the challenges Sillings is working with, but the amount the project came in at is not feasible.
“I appreciate all the work you have done, and your firm has done with the space that you have to work with and the complexities of it and working at night and trying not to disrupt judicial proceedings and magistrate proceedings,” Salango said. “It is a very complex project, it’s just the amount that it came in at.
Wheeler says he is unsure of the future of the project, but there is still time to go back to the drawing board before a decision needs to be made.
“I don’t know how comfortable I feel moving forward on this project,” Wheeler said. “I would say give it some time, but let’s come back, we’ve got until November 4 to actually vote on this. Go back to the table and see if there’s any room at all with the contractors.”