Transcript

Event transcript
The cameras can come in late. 00:00:00
Good evening, I'd like to call to order this work session. 00:00:09
On the new City Hall. 00:00:13
And uh. 00:00:16
There are a few copies if you saw them out on the table of. 00:00:18
Floor plan. 00:00:22
Sorry they're not larger, but maybe you can get the. 00:00:23
The the grip of what's going on and look at the TV as well out there, but. 00:00:27
So the purpose of the meeting tonight was to kind, we have, you know, some new members on council since all of this was conceived. 00:00:34
We had. 00:00:42
First initial. 00:00:43
A bid that went out and came back with only one bidder and the price generally around $10 million, which we all agree was a little 00:00:45
pricey for where we wanted to be and. 00:00:50
So we wanted to kind of talk about what's in there, what needs to stay in there, what other things we might. 00:00:55
Considered now. 00:01:01
With the. 00:01:04
New council and and there was kind of a process obviously that. 00:01:06
That got us. 00:01:09
Where we are now. 00:01:11
And maybe Mr. Horton can kind of maybe give us a brief. 00:01:12
Rundown on. 00:01:18
Kind of how we got where we are and and we can look at. 00:01:19
What's currently in the current plan? 00:01:23
And then go from there. 00:01:26
All right. So good evening, everyone. 00:01:27
I won't apologize for being sitting down, but I can run the computer from here is a lot better than I can from up there. 00:01:29
So this is the overall floor plan and if you'll remember back. 00:01:35
When we originally purchased the building, we had. 00:01:39
Squares and we said we're gonna do this and that. 00:01:42
That's pretty much what we've done here. 00:01:45
For the benefit of the group. 00:01:48
I'm going on large. 00:01:49
This and just kind of take you on. 00:01:51
I guess a. 00:01:53
Facility. 00:01:55
At the bottom of the page. 00:02:00
You'll see where it says entry. 00:02:02
That is the main entrance coming in as it is right now. 00:02:04
Tweaks there, cleaning up if you will, and. 00:02:11
Some changes. 00:02:14
You'll notice that one room once you come into the main entry into the foyer. 00:02:17
Of the of the area, that room that goes back off to the right. 00:02:22
That is where. 00:02:26
We can take. 00:02:27
Applications and things of that nature if we need to meet with. 00:02:29
Member of the public. 00:02:32
That room will certainly be available. 00:02:34
Then you'll walk into the main hall hallway. 00:02:36
Which we referred to as the Grand Hallway, I-95 and all kinds of things. 00:02:39
But going back to the left. 00:02:45
You'll see the main conference room, the big conference room, which is already there. There will be no changes to that room. 00:02:48
Other than some cleaning up and things of that nature. 00:02:54
You will enter into a corridor that will house the administration. 00:02:57
The executive suites, if you will. 00:03:03
Myself, assistant city manager, the HR director. 00:03:05
The mayor. 00:03:09
Across the hall will be. 00:03:10
The executive assistant. 00:03:12
There will be what we're what we're referring to as a library. We have a lot of. 00:03:14
The old historical books from meetings and things that have accumulated overtime, but. 00:03:19
That provides us room where we can have that in there where folks want to go in and look at. 00:03:24
At different books or. 00:03:29
Want to see? 00:03:30
What really did happen with the shrimp project? You'll be able to go there and open the book and you can kind of see. 00:03:32
Some history. 00:03:38
2 project. 00:03:39
That's the intent there. Then you've got the assistant HR office directly across from the HR director. 00:03:41
Then there's room for file storage. 00:03:47
We have some additional open. 00:03:49
As you go. 00:03:52
Up the area. 00:03:54
And then there's an open. 00:04:00
Work area. 00:04:02
With another library IA storage area. 00:04:05
To the right of the page, when you look at it, that is our finance section. 00:04:09
That is where their offices are housed. 00:04:14
They'll have a conference or. 00:04:17
We're proposing a conference area. 00:04:18
The different. 00:04:23
Office areas. 00:04:24
Then to the right of the page where you see where it says finance, that's where the CSR will be. 00:04:27
That's where you'll be. 00:04:33
Pay your water bill your. 00:04:34
Any just like you do right here in this building. 00:04:36
It'll be where the CSR's. 00:04:39
We did add some additional spaces there. 00:04:42
4 if we do have to have growth of something. 00:04:45
There's room to grow into those areas. 00:04:48
The men's and women's bathroom. 00:04:51
Or as they are. 00:04:53
Which are ADA compliant as we speak. 00:04:54
On the far right hand side you will see the. 00:04:57
And the assistant city. 00:05:00
Offices, uh. 00:05:02
And I'm going to take you. 00:05:03
Kind of even a little bit further. 00:05:06
To the right. 00:05:08
That secure storage space that you see is. 00:05:10
The clerks. 00:05:13
Storage space. 00:05:14
Currently we have storage. 00:05:16
One in the city clerk's office. 00:05:19
We have another room where we have storage. There we also have storage space. 00:05:21
At our Police Department and secure lockup area. 00:05:26
So all of it will be brought back to that area and will be placed in that secure storage area. 00:05:29
Above that you'll see it storage. 00:05:35
So I'm going back to the left now. 00:05:38
To the far left at the bottom. 00:05:45
You will see the area that is referred to as Main St. 00:05:48
With a conference area, meeting spaces. 00:05:53
Additional offices. 00:05:57
With restrooms. 00:05:58
To the top of that. 00:06:00
You'll see an area that's referred to as a nest all. 00:06:02
Or that's a nesting area for. 00:06:05
Businesses that umm. 00:06:08
Need to meet with a client but they don't have an office here in Saint Mary's and they want to meet with someone. 00:06:10
They can come and schedule a time through. 00:06:16
Our Main St. 00:06:19
It's kind of a. 00:06:21
Nesting Incubator. 00:06:23
Space if you want to consider that. 00:06:25
So so that space is there. You'll also see a production area. 00:06:30
Umm, that we've also included in that space. 00:06:34
Moving directly up the page to the midsection, you will see. 00:06:39
Get back over, you'll see where it. 00:06:46
Their offices will be in their IT. 00:06:49
Where all of them? 00:06:52
CPUs and all switching and all that. It's already there. That room will not change. 00:06:54
Just have a lot more electronic equipment. 00:06:59
Placed inside. 00:07:01
Then you've got the council chambers, which is the Oval shape. 00:07:03
With spaces for. 00:07:09
All elected officials. 00:07:11
The attorney. 00:07:13
Press and myself and. 00:07:15
Assistant City Manager. 00:07:18
Moving directly across the page, we'll go into planning and zoning. 00:07:21
Umm with two offices of lobby area. 00:07:26
And area for additional. 00:07:29
Pod Lake, if you will, for our building inspectors. 00:07:33
A lot during the day because they're out in the field. 00:07:38
So that that space is kind of. 00:07:41
Open to a degree. 00:07:43
That that is their. 00:07:45
If you've ever been in here on a Friday. 00:07:50
When it's court date. 00:07:53
You will know that this room that you're sitting in is currently being used as our courtroom. 00:07:55
Our Municipal Court. 00:08:00
It also impacts everything that we do up and down the hallways. 00:08:02
To include going to the restroom. 00:08:06
'Cause there's people and. 00:08:08
Y'all please apologize. I apologize for the pun. They're stacked in here like dirty clothes. 00:08:10
Literally, there's folks everywhere. 00:08:16
So making that Municipal Court on the top. 00:08:19
Umm. Of the page that you see on the far. 00:08:23
Left. 00:08:26
It provides for. 00:08:28
Space for our home. 00:08:29
What's it called the attorney? 00:08:33
Public Defender. 00:08:35
It also has space for our. 00:08:36
Restitution. 00:08:39
Company that we work with. 00:08:41
On a daily basis. 00:08:43
Area for our. 00:08:45
Torque of court. The judge. 00:08:47
And file storage. 00:08:49
There's probation space and everybody can kind of see that. 00:08:51
To the center of the building at the. 00:08:56
The top of the page you will see one that says events. 00:08:58
This was originally designed to be a constant, like a community room if you will. 00:09:01
For folks to. 00:09:08
Our boards and authorities to meet it was also. 00:09:10
Designed to be able to serve as a. 00:09:13
Emergency Operations Center for the Saint Mary's. 00:09:16
In time of a hurricane. 00:09:20
That's the reason at the top of the page you'll see of small men's and. 00:09:23
Ladies restroom that includes the shower. 00:09:26
As most of you know. 00:09:30
Some of us are. 00:09:32
On location during hurricanes for. 00:09:33
Long periods of time and. 00:09:36
We really need to shower at some point during that time because. 00:09:38
Charlie smells. 00:09:42
I'm sorry to say hello, sorry. 00:09:44
Umm, the space off to the. 00:09:46
Where you say events lobby, it says production meditation. 00:09:52
Flex space. Those are pretty much open rooms as of right now. 00:09:56
Originally, the production room was designed because we were thinking of having a like a podcast. 00:09:59
Situation where we could talk about what's going on in the city. 00:10:06
On a regular basis, we'd like to be able to do that launch on a weekly basis. 00:10:10
So that's what that room was originally designed for. 00:10:14
And then the flex space is for our department heads, IE our chiefs. 00:10:18
Public Works director when they're stuck at City Hall for. 00:10:23
Meetings were almost back-to-back where they've got a minute they could run. 00:10:27
Check an e-mail or take care of something that's a space where they can go. 00:10:31
Do that as well. 00:10:35
Moving back down the page towards the council chambers, you'll see the council offices. 00:10:38
And space for the mayor pro town. 00:10:44
Off to the right of the page. 00:10:48
You will find. 00:10:51
Break room, which is the open space that's there now when you walk in down that main corridor going towards the Senior Center. 00:10:52
You'll see one that doesn't have a door, it's just open. 00:10:59
That's going to be the break room. 00:11:02
Brake area for employees and everything like that. 00:11:04
The exercise room is actually in existence. 00:11:07
It's already there. 00:11:10
You just have to go through the warehouse to get through. 00:11:12
But that provides a space if someone wants to. 00:11:16
Have exercised during the lunch hour. 00:11:19
That is the. 00:11:23
Real quick overview. 00:11:24
Of uh. 00:11:26
What council had previously approved. 00:11:28
So. 00:11:31
That's that's your quick tour, Mr. Mayor. 00:11:32
All right. Thank you. 00:11:35
So I guess I want to start with. 00:11:38
Just maybe asking Council. 00:11:41
Opinions about. 00:11:46
I say in particular, we have. 00:11:49
You know, a couple new council members and myself. 00:11:51
That weren't involved in this process. 00:11:54
Umm. And uh. 00:11:58
I would also like to recognize that. 00:12:00
Mr. David Amos, our architect, is. 00:12:02
Here in the audience with us to kind of take notes and hear what we have to say and appreciate him. 00:12:04
Making the trip to be here with us tonight, but. 00:12:09
Obviously a challenging. 00:12:16
Situation when you. 00:12:17
Keep having turnover and different opinions or whatever. 00:12:18
But hopefully we can. 00:12:22
You know. 00:12:24
And for the council, what we're going to do here. 00:12:25
For council benefit we also broke this damaged range. You'll have to help me here. 00:12:28
We had three amendments to the. 00:12:32
To the proposal. 00:12:34
The main trunk of the building or the main? 00:12:36
Focus point or the base bid? 00:12:39
Was originally. 00:12:42
Basically taking. 00:12:43
From where you see the Council chambers on the. 00:12:44
Top of the page. 00:12:48
Down to the. 00:12:49
To the main wall. 00:12:52
That was the original base bid if I'm correct. 00:12:53
OK. 00:12:57
Alternate. 00:12:59
Or they up at the top. 00:13:00
Where you say the. 00:13:03
Courtroom in that other room. 00:13:04
No EOC room if you will. 00:13:06
Over was another alternative. 00:13:09
And uh. 00:13:12
Another alternative was. 00:13:14
Some of the outside. 00:13:16
Decor is that? 00:13:19
Facade. Facade. He's teaching me a new words. 00:13:21
That was also included as a part of that. 00:13:26
But we had broke it down that way because if the bids did come in. 00:13:29
Like they did. 00:13:34
We can go back in and say, OK, what's the meat of what we need to be able to do? 00:13:36
And that being. 00:13:40
The council chambers. 00:13:41
Umm, there is. 00:13:44
There is some room. 00:13:47
To manipulate additional space there if we need to. 00:13:49
And we can manipulate whatever. 00:13:53
We're just this is where we're at. 00:13:56
So could you refresh our memories on the bids that came in? 00:13:59
For the various the three options that you just. 00:14:04
Right outside my head. 00:14:09
And I apologize. 00:14:10
But the base bid was. 00:14:12
Just over $7,000,000. 00:14:14
And then the other. 00:14:17
Addendums, if you will. 00:14:19
They they added up to that other $3,000,000. 00:14:22
And I'm sorry, I don't have that exact breakdown. 00:14:26
So that would be the. 00:14:29
Council offices. 00:14:32
The Northside. 00:14:34
On the top of the page. 00:14:35
The events room. 00:14:37
Yes, ma'am. 00:14:38
The Municipal Court. 00:14:39
And council. 00:14:43
Yeah. 00:14:44
So. 00:14:46
And did we say that? Umm. 00:14:48
The Main Street area was originally designed all that square footage for the. 00:14:52
The Chamber. 00:15:00
Some other. 00:15:01
And it is international tenants that will. 00:15:03
Looking at that and that have made other choices since that time. 00:15:06
So all that square footage at this point. 00:15:10
Is not necessarily needed. 00:15:14
No, ma'am. 00:15:18
However, I would recommend that if we were looking at doing something with that space, that. 00:15:23
Then taking and enlarging the planning and zoning area. 00:15:29
And to and the reason I'm saying to do that. 00:15:34
To include the Main Street group. 00:15:37
Because they are doing business license and they're working. 00:15:39
Hand in hand with the. 00:15:42
With the building and planning and zoning. 00:15:44
Well, and one thing and I know. 00:15:47
Miss Ryan, I believe has. 00:15:50
Has put in everyone's. 00:15:52
Boxes and and she and I've had conversations. 00:15:55
About. 00:15:59
The possibility and whether or not there would be. 00:16:03
You know, intention among the Council to. 00:16:08
Possibly we've talked about some other things, you know, poor. 00:16:11
Some of that space you know whether. 00:16:15
An incubator program. 00:16:17
Economic development, kind of. 00:16:19
You know, for new businesses, those kinds of things. 00:16:21
But the other idea was possibly for some sort of. 00:16:25
Cultural arts you know theater type situation which might allow our local community theaters to have a. 00:16:28
A nice space. 00:16:36
To to put on their performances and things. 00:16:37
Have you ever been over to? 00:16:41
Fernandina to the Amelia. 00:16:43
Community theater. 00:16:46
Very nice space they have there for. 00:16:47
For their performances and. 00:16:50
To possibly, you know, allow us to have something. 00:16:52
Similar that you know, or at least that would meet. 00:16:55
Meet that that need as well and. 00:16:59
I know she's in support of that and has put letters to everyone's box to that effect for us. 00:17:02
To consider that. 00:17:07
Proposal as we. 00:17:08
As we. 00:17:10
Take into consideration changes or things we might want to do here and. 00:17:11
Make available. 00:17:15
And uh. 00:17:16
You know whether that. 00:17:19
Possibly is a. 00:17:21
A reconfiguration of that. 00:17:24
Top space where the events. 00:17:25
Is to allow for. 00:17:27
Actually that space to be kind of flexed between. 00:17:30
Theater situation, obviously, if we're having. 00:17:34
Emergency operations, We're probably not having theater. Yes, those two could probably coexist nicely together, you know? 00:17:37
But just, I say, just one idea for us to consider, you know? 00:17:45
As possible. 00:17:49
Usage would make. 00:17:51
Be some funding available. 00:17:53
You know for that out there in the in the private sector or public sector, you know for. 00:17:56
Cultural arts that. 00:18:01
Could help. 00:18:03
Cover some of the extents of that. So it's just a. 00:18:05
I thought as well, Sir. 00:18:07
It just something similar to what you just stated is you know the GMA conference, you know one of the. 00:18:09
You know, I said through a presentation on entrepreneurial friendly cities. 00:18:14
And you know, the value of small businesses is anything but small. 00:18:18
And sometimes it's hard to get started and they don't have the desired office space. 00:18:22
But one of the cities spoke up. 00:18:26
And. 00:18:28
Turned one of their city buildings into. 00:18:29
Umm I won't don't want to call it club, but just like a membership based service where they have meeting spaces and offices 00:18:31
available for small businesses and and their memberships ran from as low as. 00:18:38
Like 45 or $50 up to 7 or $800. And that's depending on the size of the space and the amount of use you might need. So, you know, 00:18:44
the lower membership might get you one or two, you know. 00:18:49
One or two days out of the month where you need an office to user or conference room to use. 00:18:54
If you need a permanent office space or a temporary office space but you have a month to month contract, or wherever the case may 00:18:59
be. 00:19:02
That you would be on the higher end because you're, you know, that's your day-to-day operation. 00:19:06
So a shared space which? 00:19:09
Could include possibly the theater if there's a room there big enough that would. 00:19:11
Accommodate that, but that's not a full time. 00:19:15
You know gig, you know where you have. 00:19:17
You know city staff member or you know. 00:19:19
Be it Candice or whomever that would fall under. 00:19:21
That would actually keep up with the schedule of. 00:19:24
The office spaces where you know you do have a. 00:19:27
You know, a little bit of a revenue stream coming into the. 00:19:29
You know, kind of cover the cost and expenses in the in the building. 00:19:31
But it's a low membership to give somebody a large benefit, you know, trying to get off the ground with a small business. 00:19:35
While Mr. Amos is here too, I know there's a lot of. 00:19:46
Space and the current design that has dropped ceilings. 00:19:50
And uh. 00:19:54
Space already has some acoustic. 00:19:55
Uh, built in. 00:19:59
And we are wondering about the air handling system and having to modify that and all the lighting and whether or not. 00:20:01
Umm, you could design offices in such a way that. 00:20:10
Umm, we would leave the open ceilings. 00:20:15
If we. 00:20:18
Are able. 00:20:20
Oh, the clerk is asking if you would please come to the microphone. 00:20:27
For the people. 00:20:32
Watching at home. 00:20:33
With that, there are certain areas we have to have. 00:20:51
Both fire separation. 00:20:55
And also sound separation, so there are. 00:20:57
Particular areas that there will be confidential. 00:21:00
Conversations that we need to be aware. 00:21:02
What areas would those be? 00:21:05
Usually the conference areas. 00:21:07
There would be some offices, I think, personnel certainly. 00:21:11
You wouldn't want. 00:21:14
Those those walls need to go all the way up and have certain acoustic control in them, but. 00:21:15
But men in secure areas such as. 00:21:21
City Clerk's areas. 00:21:23
Yes, we need to be. 00:21:25
More secure with. 00:21:27
I'm not sure what we one of the other plans I provided there was. 00:21:29
With the ceiling surfaces but. 00:21:33
I know the secure storage area and the safe for those obviously would have. 00:21:36
Secure ceilings, but yes. 00:21:41
Yeah, I'm not sure. We just have a regular drop ceiling in the. 00:21:43
City Clerk's and. 00:21:47
I'm not sure if that's adequate or not, but. 00:21:49
You know, for. 00:21:52
Somebody climbing up in the ceiling and dropping down in another room easily or whatever, but. 00:21:55
There's some things I'd say certainly for consideration that. 00:22:01
Need to happen so. 00:22:06
How much more money is it going to cost? 00:22:08
To those enclosed offices. 00:22:11
How are you going to get air conditioning heat in there? 00:22:13
We were planning on reusing all of the majority of the existing rooftop systems. 00:22:17
Do what now we were planning to reuse. 00:22:22
All of the existing rooftop systems. 00:22:25
OK. And reduct? 00:22:27
Into those places that's that's not going to be a humongous job. 00:22:29
Should not be there. 00:22:33
Going to more of an open ceiling concept, we'll just have to evaluate it from the mechanical standpoint. 00:22:35
See what the best solutions that. There's a main trunk system in there now that has just. 00:22:42
Dead end drops of. 00:22:46
Where the air is coming out. 00:22:49
Is that correct in summaries? Yes, it's amazing. 00:22:50
And so. 00:22:53
Tying into those trunks with flexible ducting. 00:22:55
If you if you had the opportunity to go in the building prior to. 00:22:58
The phase, phase. 00:23:01
There were several offices in there that had. 00:23:04
What Miss Travis is talking about? 00:23:07
That main office once you come out of. 00:23:10
We're not city manager's office would be. 00:23:12
It had a. 00:23:16
A flex pipe. 00:23:17
That came down into that space with the grid signal. 00:23:19
So that it's just a. 00:23:22
It's just a flex trunk coming off and going to it. 00:23:24
Implant the part, sorry. And that was my. 00:23:29
Biggest question with the enclosed offices. 00:23:32
Is how you're going to get heat and electing, you know, heat and air conditioning. 00:23:35
Yeah. Well, but the modifications to the existing system I guess, is that your question? Yes. 00:23:40
Yeah, yeah. 00:23:47
So do you need to have? 00:23:50
You have 13 bathrooms on either side of the. 00:23:52
Council chambers. Is it necessary? Is there a certain? 00:23:55
Requirement for how many bathrooms the bathrooms those bathrooms are existing. 00:23:58
See how there's 13 up there, 13 down there? 00:24:07
I think both bathrooms already there, aren't they? 00:24:11
Yes. 00:24:14
Where you see the bathrooms? 00:24:17
And. 00:24:20
If I remember right. 00:24:22
You've got the ones above where the. 00:24:25
Emergency operations sound was going to be that we were talking about. 00:24:28
You also have additional bathrooms down. 00:24:31
On the very bottom. 00:24:35
By the Executive Highway. 00:24:37
Then there was 2 bathrooms in the. 00:24:39
Main Street area. 00:24:43
Well, but we're we're asking about the existing. 00:24:44
So those are. 00:24:48
Here and here. 00:24:50
If you have 26 bathrooms. 00:24:55
I mean, is it just a? 00:24:57
A distance travel I can understand about the showers. 00:24:58
But those other bathrooms isn't necessary to have more since you already have 26 bathrooms. 00:25:01
The ones in the Municipal Court, absolutely. 00:25:06
Because that's. 00:25:09
Going to be operate if. 00:25:10
Under this plan, would have been operated totally independent of the rest of the facility. 00:25:11
It was the same in the Main St. JDA chamber area. 00:25:16
That was designed to be operated totally independent of the rest of the facility. 00:25:20
The Main Street area was also taking consideration of having nighttime events when. 00:25:24
When the actual building would have been closed but you had public in there. 00:25:29
For the event of some solar. 00:25:33
And they don't have to. 00:25:35
Walk all the way through the building to get to the. 00:25:36
To those buildings, that's what consideration was when we were laying this out. 00:25:39
Let me just ask it this way just to. 00:25:44
To I wrote down 5 possible things. 00:25:47
Cost savings if you could tell me which one is possible? 00:25:50
To save and which is not possible to take off the list of. 00:25:54
The one thing I have is the bathrooms, the extra bathrooms. 00:25:57
The event space, as the mayor already pointed out, and just maybe coming back to that later or renting that. 00:26:00
The temporary. 00:26:05
Using the Municipal Court just like we do now. 00:26:07
In the council chambers, so leaving that out. 00:26:11
The drop ceilings, as Miss Lynn pointed out. 00:26:13
And then the removal of council offices. 00:26:16
There were just five things that I had that would save money. 00:26:19
Which which of those are doable and is? 00:26:22
That's something we can look at. 00:26:25
We can look at whatever you want to look at. 00:26:29
I would recommend. 00:26:31
Depending on what happens with that. 00:26:34
That Main Street area. 00:26:36
Whatever we come up with there. 00:26:39
That may be. 00:26:41
A means of dropping some bathrooms. 00:26:42
I would. 00:26:46
I personally would recommend. 00:26:48
Keeping the court there, it may not be one of the things we build out immediately. 00:26:51
But I would keep the separation. 00:26:55
Of those facilities, I'm not saying not I had written down temporarily. So leaving that off right now if you left that off and 00:27:00
they can operate in the Municipal Court, but we have the space to put that later just to get in because I know everybody wants to 00:27:05
get in and that was the reason for the addendum. 00:27:10
On the bid. 00:27:15
Because that is something we can come back later and do that whole. 00:27:16
North so I keep saying N but that top of the page. 00:27:20
Build out at a later time. 00:27:25
Right, right. 00:27:27
Absolutely. I mean, that was the reason we had looked at it in that manner. 00:27:28
Charlie and I went over and looked at the space and I know we have the sub museum going in some of the warehouse space and the 00:27:32
wall they are actually taking. 00:27:37
All the frontage. 00:27:43
There and we talked about the idea of turning the wall the other way so that we would have a unit. 00:27:45
With frontage space. 00:27:52
Available. 00:27:54
That we could. 00:27:55
You know, just somebody else. 00:27:57
And generate some revenue. 00:27:59
So instead of having the wall run. 00:28:02
Parallel to the frontage space, it would be perpendicular. 00:28:05
And I'm not trying to. 00:28:12
We need to go back and look at the agreement. 00:28:15
I'm trying to remember if we could we were allowed to do. 00:28:20
Part of the purchase agreement that we can only have so much space leased out to the private sector. Is that correct or for retail 00:28:24
space? Yeah. 00:28:27
Yeah. So we don't know how much that is. 00:28:31
I have to. I'll go back into that. 00:28:33
It's like 10 I think like 10,000 square feet maybe if I'm not fault. 00:28:36
What if it's like a business incubator or somebody, some space at the state? 00:28:39
Could provide funding for. 00:28:44
You know, it was, I know it was retail space, but that we discussed that might not own that umbrella where we could have the 00:28:49
commuter space that we described. 00:28:53
Yeah. 00:28:58
I guess one of my questions to the. 00:29:03
To the court area. 00:29:07
I think there's. 00:29:09
7. 00:29:10
Seven offices in addition to the. 00:29:13
Conference space. Holding room. 00:29:15
And of course then, then file rooms and whatnot and. 00:29:18
And I'm not quite sure about the seating capacity there. 00:29:23
Compared to. 00:29:26
You know, you know what? I guess those are benches, pews, or. 00:29:28
Looking away, we're looking at. 00:29:32
Yeah, old church games, actually. 00:29:35
Easier to claim they don't. 00:29:37
Standing and it's all. 00:29:39
I just wonder about, you know, you know, especially if we're trying to make room for. 00:29:43
A potential theater or something, you know, kind of what? 00:29:48
If there's any contraction that we could do in that space a little bit, that would still be very. 00:29:53
Serviceable or not? 00:29:57
That's obviously not my area expertise to know what they. 00:30:00
What they need, but with the amount of offices and I know we I know we wanted. 00:30:03
Officer. 00:30:07
You know, clients to meet with their attorneys and stuff, you know? 00:30:09
Umm, but uh, and maybe, maybe that's, maybe we have the bare minimum there, I don't know. 00:30:13
If you were looking for a space that you could do. 00:30:18
A community theater or something like that in. 00:30:22
I would I would look. 00:30:25
More towards that event space where you see the events and event lobby. 00:30:28
That area in there. 00:30:32
Because it is a little bit more flexible. 00:30:34
It is also able to. 00:30:36
Excuse to turn the quarantine from the rest of the building. 00:30:38
I guess that's right. Wednesday that. 00:30:42
So they could. 00:30:45
We don't have to have staff there when they're. 00:30:46
When you're running your offense. 00:30:49
If that makes any sense. 00:30:51
I mean, we may have to. 00:30:53
Figure out some means of making sure they have access. 00:30:54
To the large restroom at the top of the building. 00:30:59
On top page. 00:31:02
And I guess to the other point, Mr. Nash Meadows question. 00:31:06
Umm, you know. 00:31:11
The Council. 00:31:14
We don't need those. 00:31:17
You know we don't. I'm a. 00:31:19
I'm gonna go. 00:31:23
One of the original people that. 00:31:25
Was on board when we. 00:31:26
Drew up his plan. 00:31:28
And. 00:31:30
At the time we figured it would cause. 00:31:33
Maybe a couple $1,000,000 to get in. 00:31:35
But it proved that it's it's a lot more now. 00:31:39
I agree that we need to. 00:31:45
Try to cut. 00:31:47
Corners as much as we can. 00:31:50
But I want this. 00:31:53
City Hall to be a. 00:31:54
I don't want to piece meal it. 00:31:57
For one thing, you know, if we're going to do it, I think we should do it right. 00:31:59
And I don't. 00:32:03
Feel like we should. 00:32:05
Cut a few corners just to save. 00:32:10
15 or $20,000. 00:32:13
You know if it's a great amount of money that we can save. 00:32:15
That's fine, but things are going to go up every day. 00:32:19
And the longer we wait. 00:32:21
And the longer we postpone this. 00:32:23
The higher things. 00:32:25
And especially with terrorists. 00:32:27
You know it's liable to go up even more. 00:32:28
So you know, we can twiddle our thumbs and. 00:32:31
Try to save save money. 00:32:34
With a bathroom taken out here or. 00:32:37
Something taken out here. 00:32:39
And it's going to inconvenience us. 00:32:41
Later on down the line. 00:32:43
Where if you leave some of these things in. 00:32:45
We know what we need. 00:32:48
And just go ahead and pay for it. 00:32:50
And stop waiting for. 00:32:52
Prices to increase. 00:32:54
Over and over again. 00:32:56
If you take another beard, another. 00:32:58
Yeah, six months or so. 00:33:00
Prices may go up again. 00:33:02
So you know. 00:33:04
My thing is if you want it. 00:33:06
Done. And you want it done, right? 00:33:09
Citizens of Saint Mary's. 00:33:11
Go ahead and get it done. 00:33:13
I don't disagree with any of that. 00:33:16
In terms that, I think we need to go ahead and get in there. 00:33:19
And that allows us to do something with this property. 00:33:23
But I guess. 00:33:27
In my mind, the essential. 00:33:27
Question is. 00:33:29
Are we? 00:33:33
Willing to ask? 00:33:34
The citizens which are residential, primarily residential taxpayers. 00:33:36
To spend $7,000,000 that was on the base queen. 00:33:43
Quote to get into some office space. 00:33:46
Umm, or or. 00:33:51
Are we gonna ask? 00:33:54
The people who know how to do this, which would be you and. 00:33:55
Some other. 00:33:59
Engineers. 00:34:00
If we can really truly trim a couple $1,000,000 off of this, is there a way to do that and still have it be? 00:34:01
Nice space because. 00:34:10
I can tell you that I've heard from a lot of my constituents that they don't want to spend. 00:34:12
$7,000,000 And that's the same conversation we had about the budget. 00:34:17
And we had a line item in there for $6 million. 00:34:22
And we took it out. 00:34:27
Because. 00:34:28
We were going to go back to the drawing board and try and. 00:34:30
Do some, you know, some substantive? 00:34:34
Reductions in cost and none of us. 00:34:38
Know how to do that? 00:34:41
I mean. 00:34:43
We need to rely on your expertise to help us. 00:34:44
Show us some options that might really reduce the cost by a few million. 00:34:48
Dollars, and I don't know if that's even possible. 00:34:54
Well, if we eliminate the entire north of this project. 00:34:56
That's half the building. 00:35:00
So all the Council chambers events. 00:35:01
Municipal Court. 00:35:03
We don't do that right now. We get into City Hall. 00:35:04
And then we sell this. 00:35:08
And then we go back and then build. 00:35:09
Out what we want later. 00:35:11
But that's that's the base bid is. 00:35:13
That is includes not doing that. So that's $7,000,000 has nothing to do with Municipal Court event space or it's just the bottom 00:35:16
part of it. 00:35:20
It's just 7 million and then obviously. 00:35:25
The only thing I can think of is. 00:35:28
Bathrooms and drops, yeah. 00:35:29
And you're talking about what? 00:35:32
Reform not. 00:35:33
$30,000 for investments. 00:35:35
You know, I've been in some beautiful office space and some bigger cities that's open. 00:35:37
And the acoustics are already good in that building. 00:35:43
I mean it's. 00:35:47
Gorgeous space. 00:35:48
That we could be very proud of, but I don't know if it's any less expensive. 00:35:51
We're finishing up. We have this. 00:35:56
Huge amount of square footage. 00:35:58
And we're finishing off a lot of it. I don't know. 00:36:01
If we. 00:36:04
Made that much square footage either. 00:36:05
But I I'm pretty sure we don't want to spend $7,000,000. 00:36:09
Just to get in there. 00:36:13
And the part of what we. 00:36:15
Attempted to do through the planning process also in Municipal Court and with a lot of different departments was. 00:36:16
Looking at what current staff levels are what? 00:36:24
The current. 00:36:26
Caseload and. 00:36:28
Number of people coming into Municipal Court. 00:36:31
And looking at your community decides it is now. 00:36:33
And knowing there's. 00:36:37
It's fixing to increase tremendously. 00:36:38
So we've got to be very careful that we don't. 00:36:41
Touch things to a point. 00:36:45
That in 10 years your population has swelled and now your staff. 00:36:47
Everything else is undersized. 00:36:51
I agree with that too. 00:36:54
Yeah. You know, I think that's smart. 00:36:57
Well, right now, in this building, we'll. 00:36:59
Busting at the scenes. 00:37:01
You can't go in any office feeling where you. 00:37:03
Cluttered with boxes. 00:37:06
Bags and things to. 00:37:09
To try to get around, we knew that we were going to have to do this. 00:37:10
Several years ago. 00:37:14
We were fortunate enough to. 00:37:18
Get into this. 00:37:20
Deal with Express Scripts and. 00:37:21
And get a villain that's. 00:37:24
Sizable a building that we can. 00:37:26
We can get anything that we want. 00:37:29
And the senior citizens are doing great in their area. 00:37:33
And I don't think that the citizens of Saint Mary's. 00:37:39
Need even need anything less? 00:37:43
In other words, I want to put. I want to get this where. 00:37:50
10 years down the line. 20 years down the line. 00:37:53
We have something that we can still be proud of. 00:37:57
I don't want us to have this same problem that we're having here. 00:38:00
In the next 10 years. 00:38:03
And like he said, the growth is coming. 00:38:05
And you need a. 00:38:07
Is there a reason we've had such few bids? Like what are we doing as far as being aggressive to go after maybe extending our reach 00:38:10
for bids? 00:38:14
The big. 00:38:19
The one bid we had, we had reached out through the department administrative Services, which has a. 00:38:21
A contract build. 00:38:28
Service I guess is the way to call it referred to as. 00:38:30
Sometimes when you go to the shows. 00:38:34
You'll you'll meet them. 00:38:37
The original, so we dealt with them. 00:38:39
Originally. 00:38:42
And that's. 00:38:43
Basically the same group that we dealt, we got the bidding on. 00:38:44
I know that doesn't answer your question, I just wanted to get a blowback history associated with it. 00:38:49
They we had. 00:38:54
Some local folks that were interested in it. 00:38:58
And got down and. 00:39:02
Basically, time had gotten away from them after we had even extended. 00:39:03
The bid. 00:39:07
Opening deadline. 00:39:10
For them to allow them to have additional time to get their numbers and stuff together. 00:39:11
And. 00:39:17
They just at the last minute opted not to provide us with a bid. 00:39:18
But we've advertised. 00:39:24
Both statewide. 00:39:25
Local everywhere. 00:39:27
OK, we're gonna. 00:39:29
Need to wrap up in this particular session because we can prepare. 00:39:31
Audio visual for the. 00:39:35
For the. 00:39:38
Alcohol. 00:39:40
So. 00:39:42
Think maybe? 00:39:43
The next step kind of take some of the comments we've had here, maybe Robbie and I can communicate with. 00:39:44
Mr. Amos and talk about some of the options and. 00:39:49
To see if we can get some ballpark. 00:39:53
Ideas of some things before we go to. 00:39:56
Too far in depth and. 00:39:59
Well, in the meantime I can start. 00:40:01
Evaluating some of the other things that. 00:40:03
We've discussed to see. 00:40:05
Sort of magnitude of. 00:40:08
Of cost. 00:40:10
OK. Thank you so much for being here tonight. 00:40:12
Thank you. Thank you. 00:40:14

Transcript

Event transcript
The cameras can come in late. 00:00:00
Good evening, I'd like to call to order this work session. 00:00:09
On the new City Hall. 00:00:13
And uh. 00:00:16
There are a few copies if you saw them out on the table of. 00:00:18
Floor plan. 00:00:22
Sorry they're not larger, but maybe you can get the. 00:00:23
The the grip of what's going on and look at the TV as well out there, but. 00:00:27
So the purpose of the meeting tonight was to kind, we have, you know, some new members on council since all of this was conceived. 00:00:34
We had. 00:00:42
First initial. 00:00:43
A bid that went out and came back with only one bidder and the price generally around $10 million, which we all agree was a little 00:00:45
pricey for where we wanted to be and. 00:00:50
So we wanted to kind of talk about what's in there, what needs to stay in there, what other things we might. 00:00:55
Considered now. 00:01:01
With the. 00:01:04
New council and and there was kind of a process obviously that. 00:01:06
That got us. 00:01:09
Where we are now. 00:01:11
And maybe Mr. Horton can kind of maybe give us a brief. 00:01:12
Rundown on. 00:01:18
Kind of how we got where we are and and we can look at. 00:01:19
What's currently in the current plan? 00:01:23
And then go from there. 00:01:26
All right. So good evening, everyone. 00:01:27
I won't apologize for being sitting down, but I can run the computer from here is a lot better than I can from up there. 00:01:29
So this is the overall floor plan and if you'll remember back. 00:01:35
When we originally purchased the building, we had. 00:01:39
Squares and we said we're gonna do this and that. 00:01:42
That's pretty much what we've done here. 00:01:45
For the benefit of the group. 00:01:48
I'm going on large. 00:01:49
This and just kind of take you on. 00:01:51
I guess a. 00:01:53
Facility. 00:01:55
At the bottom of the page. 00:02:00
You'll see where it says entry. 00:02:02
That is the main entrance coming in as it is right now. 00:02:04
Tweaks there, cleaning up if you will, and. 00:02:11
Some changes. 00:02:14
You'll notice that one room once you come into the main entry into the foyer. 00:02:17
Of the of the area, that room that goes back off to the right. 00:02:22
That is where. 00:02:26
We can take. 00:02:27
Applications and things of that nature if we need to meet with. 00:02:29
Member of the public. 00:02:32
That room will certainly be available. 00:02:34
Then you'll walk into the main hall hallway. 00:02:36
Which we referred to as the Grand Hallway, I-95 and all kinds of things. 00:02:39
But going back to the left. 00:02:45
You'll see the main conference room, the big conference room, which is already there. There will be no changes to that room. 00:02:48
Other than some cleaning up and things of that nature. 00:02:54
You will enter into a corridor that will house the administration. 00:02:57
The executive suites, if you will. 00:03:03
Myself, assistant city manager, the HR director. 00:03:05
The mayor. 00:03:09
Across the hall will be. 00:03:10
The executive assistant. 00:03:12
There will be what we're what we're referring to as a library. We have a lot of. 00:03:14
The old historical books from meetings and things that have accumulated overtime, but. 00:03:19
That provides us room where we can have that in there where folks want to go in and look at. 00:03:24
At different books or. 00:03:29
Want to see? 00:03:30
What really did happen with the shrimp project? You'll be able to go there and open the book and you can kind of see. 00:03:32
Some history. 00:03:38
2 project. 00:03:39
That's the intent there. Then you've got the assistant HR office directly across from the HR director. 00:03:41
Then there's room for file storage. 00:03:47
We have some additional open. 00:03:49
As you go. 00:03:52
Up the area. 00:03:54
And then there's an open. 00:04:00
Work area. 00:04:02
With another library IA storage area. 00:04:05
To the right of the page, when you look at it, that is our finance section. 00:04:09
That is where their offices are housed. 00:04:14
They'll have a conference or. 00:04:17
We're proposing a conference area. 00:04:18
The different. 00:04:23
Office areas. 00:04:24
Then to the right of the page where you see where it says finance, that's where the CSR will be. 00:04:27
That's where you'll be. 00:04:33
Pay your water bill your. 00:04:34
Any just like you do right here in this building. 00:04:36
It'll be where the CSR's. 00:04:39
We did add some additional spaces there. 00:04:42
4 if we do have to have growth of something. 00:04:45
There's room to grow into those areas. 00:04:48
The men's and women's bathroom. 00:04:51
Or as they are. 00:04:53
Which are ADA compliant as we speak. 00:04:54
On the far right hand side you will see the. 00:04:57
And the assistant city. 00:05:00
Offices, uh. 00:05:02
And I'm going to take you. 00:05:03
Kind of even a little bit further. 00:05:06
To the right. 00:05:08
That secure storage space that you see is. 00:05:10
The clerks. 00:05:13
Storage space. 00:05:14
Currently we have storage. 00:05:16
One in the city clerk's office. 00:05:19
We have another room where we have storage. There we also have storage space. 00:05:21
At our Police Department and secure lockup area. 00:05:26
So all of it will be brought back to that area and will be placed in that secure storage area. 00:05:29
Above that you'll see it storage. 00:05:35
So I'm going back to the left now. 00:05:38
To the far left at the bottom. 00:05:45
You will see the area that is referred to as Main St. 00:05:48
With a conference area, meeting spaces. 00:05:53
Additional offices. 00:05:57
With restrooms. 00:05:58
To the top of that. 00:06:00
You'll see an area that's referred to as a nest all. 00:06:02
Or that's a nesting area for. 00:06:05
Businesses that umm. 00:06:08
Need to meet with a client but they don't have an office here in Saint Mary's and they want to meet with someone. 00:06:10
They can come and schedule a time through. 00:06:16
Our Main St. 00:06:19
It's kind of a. 00:06:21
Nesting Incubator. 00:06:23
Space if you want to consider that. 00:06:25
So so that space is there. You'll also see a production area. 00:06:30
Umm, that we've also included in that space. 00:06:34
Moving directly up the page to the midsection, you will see. 00:06:39
Get back over, you'll see where it. 00:06:46
Their offices will be in their IT. 00:06:49
Where all of them? 00:06:52
CPUs and all switching and all that. It's already there. That room will not change. 00:06:54
Just have a lot more electronic equipment. 00:06:59
Placed inside. 00:07:01
Then you've got the council chambers, which is the Oval shape. 00:07:03
With spaces for. 00:07:09
All elected officials. 00:07:11
The attorney. 00:07:13
Press and myself and. 00:07:15
Assistant City Manager. 00:07:18
Moving directly across the page, we'll go into planning and zoning. 00:07:21
Umm with two offices of lobby area. 00:07:26
And area for additional. 00:07:29
Pod Lake, if you will, for our building inspectors. 00:07:33
A lot during the day because they're out in the field. 00:07:38
So that that space is kind of. 00:07:41
Open to a degree. 00:07:43
That that is their. 00:07:45
If you've ever been in here on a Friday. 00:07:50
When it's court date. 00:07:53
You will know that this room that you're sitting in is currently being used as our courtroom. 00:07:55
Our Municipal Court. 00:08:00
It also impacts everything that we do up and down the hallways. 00:08:02
To include going to the restroom. 00:08:06
'Cause there's people and. 00:08:08
Y'all please apologize. I apologize for the pun. They're stacked in here like dirty clothes. 00:08:10
Literally, there's folks everywhere. 00:08:16
So making that Municipal Court on the top. 00:08:19
Umm. Of the page that you see on the far. 00:08:23
Left. 00:08:26
It provides for. 00:08:28
Space for our home. 00:08:29
What's it called the attorney? 00:08:33
Public Defender. 00:08:35
It also has space for our. 00:08:36
Restitution. 00:08:39
Company that we work with. 00:08:41
On a daily basis. 00:08:43
Area for our. 00:08:45
Torque of court. The judge. 00:08:47
And file storage. 00:08:49
There's probation space and everybody can kind of see that. 00:08:51
To the center of the building at the. 00:08:56
The top of the page you will see one that says events. 00:08:58
This was originally designed to be a constant, like a community room if you will. 00:09:01
For folks to. 00:09:08
Our boards and authorities to meet it was also. 00:09:10
Designed to be able to serve as a. 00:09:13
Emergency Operations Center for the Saint Mary's. 00:09:16
In time of a hurricane. 00:09:20
That's the reason at the top of the page you'll see of small men's and. 00:09:23
Ladies restroom that includes the shower. 00:09:26
As most of you know. 00:09:30
Some of us are. 00:09:32
On location during hurricanes for. 00:09:33
Long periods of time and. 00:09:36
We really need to shower at some point during that time because. 00:09:38
Charlie smells. 00:09:42
I'm sorry to say hello, sorry. 00:09:44
Umm, the space off to the. 00:09:46
Where you say events lobby, it says production meditation. 00:09:52
Flex space. Those are pretty much open rooms as of right now. 00:09:56
Originally, the production room was designed because we were thinking of having a like a podcast. 00:09:59
Situation where we could talk about what's going on in the city. 00:10:06
On a regular basis, we'd like to be able to do that launch on a weekly basis. 00:10:10
So that's what that room was originally designed for. 00:10:14
And then the flex space is for our department heads, IE our chiefs. 00:10:18
Public Works director when they're stuck at City Hall for. 00:10:23
Meetings were almost back-to-back where they've got a minute they could run. 00:10:27
Check an e-mail or take care of something that's a space where they can go. 00:10:31
Do that as well. 00:10:35
Moving back down the page towards the council chambers, you'll see the council offices. 00:10:38
And space for the mayor pro town. 00:10:44
Off to the right of the page. 00:10:48
You will find. 00:10:51
Break room, which is the open space that's there now when you walk in down that main corridor going towards the Senior Center. 00:10:52
You'll see one that doesn't have a door, it's just open. 00:10:59
That's going to be the break room. 00:11:02
Brake area for employees and everything like that. 00:11:04
The exercise room is actually in existence. 00:11:07
It's already there. 00:11:10
You just have to go through the warehouse to get through. 00:11:12
But that provides a space if someone wants to. 00:11:16
Have exercised during the lunch hour. 00:11:19
That is the. 00:11:23
Real quick overview. 00:11:24
Of uh. 00:11:26
What council had previously approved. 00:11:28
So. 00:11:31
That's that's your quick tour, Mr. Mayor. 00:11:32
All right. Thank you. 00:11:35
So I guess I want to start with. 00:11:38
Just maybe asking Council. 00:11:41
Opinions about. 00:11:46
I say in particular, we have. 00:11:49
You know, a couple new council members and myself. 00:11:51
That weren't involved in this process. 00:11:54
Umm. And uh. 00:11:58
I would also like to recognize that. 00:12:00
Mr. David Amos, our architect, is. 00:12:02
Here in the audience with us to kind of take notes and hear what we have to say and appreciate him. 00:12:04
Making the trip to be here with us tonight, but. 00:12:09
Obviously a challenging. 00:12:16
Situation when you. 00:12:17
Keep having turnover and different opinions or whatever. 00:12:18
But hopefully we can. 00:12:22
You know. 00:12:24
And for the council, what we're going to do here. 00:12:25
For council benefit we also broke this damaged range. You'll have to help me here. 00:12:28
We had three amendments to the. 00:12:32
To the proposal. 00:12:34
The main trunk of the building or the main? 00:12:36
Focus point or the base bid? 00:12:39
Was originally. 00:12:42
Basically taking. 00:12:43
From where you see the Council chambers on the. 00:12:44
Top of the page. 00:12:48
Down to the. 00:12:49
To the main wall. 00:12:52
That was the original base bid if I'm correct. 00:12:53
OK. 00:12:57
Alternate. 00:12:59
Or they up at the top. 00:13:00
Where you say the. 00:13:03
Courtroom in that other room. 00:13:04
No EOC room if you will. 00:13:06
Over was another alternative. 00:13:09
And uh. 00:13:12
Another alternative was. 00:13:14
Some of the outside. 00:13:16
Decor is that? 00:13:19
Facade. Facade. He's teaching me a new words. 00:13:21
That was also included as a part of that. 00:13:26
But we had broke it down that way because if the bids did come in. 00:13:29
Like they did. 00:13:34
We can go back in and say, OK, what's the meat of what we need to be able to do? 00:13:36
And that being. 00:13:40
The council chambers. 00:13:41
Umm, there is. 00:13:44
There is some room. 00:13:47
To manipulate additional space there if we need to. 00:13:49
And we can manipulate whatever. 00:13:53
We're just this is where we're at. 00:13:56
So could you refresh our memories on the bids that came in? 00:13:59
For the various the three options that you just. 00:14:04
Right outside my head. 00:14:09
And I apologize. 00:14:10
But the base bid was. 00:14:12
Just over $7,000,000. 00:14:14
And then the other. 00:14:17
Addendums, if you will. 00:14:19
They they added up to that other $3,000,000. 00:14:22
And I'm sorry, I don't have that exact breakdown. 00:14:26
So that would be the. 00:14:29
Council offices. 00:14:32
The Northside. 00:14:34
On the top of the page. 00:14:35
The events room. 00:14:37
Yes, ma'am. 00:14:38
The Municipal Court. 00:14:39
And council. 00:14:43
Yeah. 00:14:44
So. 00:14:46
And did we say that? Umm. 00:14:48
The Main Street area was originally designed all that square footage for the. 00:14:52
The Chamber. 00:15:00
Some other. 00:15:01
And it is international tenants that will. 00:15:03
Looking at that and that have made other choices since that time. 00:15:06
So all that square footage at this point. 00:15:10
Is not necessarily needed. 00:15:14
No, ma'am. 00:15:18
However, I would recommend that if we were looking at doing something with that space, that. 00:15:23
Then taking and enlarging the planning and zoning area. 00:15:29
And to and the reason I'm saying to do that. 00:15:34
To include the Main Street group. 00:15:37
Because they are doing business license and they're working. 00:15:39
Hand in hand with the. 00:15:42
With the building and planning and zoning. 00:15:44
Well, and one thing and I know. 00:15:47
Miss Ryan, I believe has. 00:15:50
Has put in everyone's. 00:15:52
Boxes and and she and I've had conversations. 00:15:55
About. 00:15:59
The possibility and whether or not there would be. 00:16:03
You know, intention among the Council to. 00:16:08
Possibly we've talked about some other things, you know, poor. 00:16:11
Some of that space you know whether. 00:16:15
An incubator program. 00:16:17
Economic development, kind of. 00:16:19
You know, for new businesses, those kinds of things. 00:16:21
But the other idea was possibly for some sort of. 00:16:25
Cultural arts you know theater type situation which might allow our local community theaters to have a. 00:16:28
A nice space. 00:16:36
To to put on their performances and things. 00:16:37
Have you ever been over to? 00:16:41
Fernandina to the Amelia. 00:16:43
Community theater. 00:16:46
Very nice space they have there for. 00:16:47
For their performances and. 00:16:50
To possibly, you know, allow us to have something. 00:16:52
Similar that you know, or at least that would meet. 00:16:55
Meet that that need as well and. 00:16:59
I know she's in support of that and has put letters to everyone's box to that effect for us. 00:17:02
To consider that. 00:17:07
Proposal as we. 00:17:08
As we. 00:17:10
Take into consideration changes or things we might want to do here and. 00:17:11
Make available. 00:17:15
And uh. 00:17:16
You know whether that. 00:17:19
Possibly is a. 00:17:21
A reconfiguration of that. 00:17:24
Top space where the events. 00:17:25
Is to allow for. 00:17:27
Actually that space to be kind of flexed between. 00:17:30
Theater situation, obviously, if we're having. 00:17:34
Emergency operations, We're probably not having theater. Yes, those two could probably coexist nicely together, you know? 00:17:37
But just, I say, just one idea for us to consider, you know? 00:17:45
As possible. 00:17:49
Usage would make. 00:17:51
Be some funding available. 00:17:53
You know for that out there in the in the private sector or public sector, you know for. 00:17:56
Cultural arts that. 00:18:01
Could help. 00:18:03
Cover some of the extents of that. So it's just a. 00:18:05
I thought as well, Sir. 00:18:07
It just something similar to what you just stated is you know the GMA conference, you know one of the. 00:18:09
You know, I said through a presentation on entrepreneurial friendly cities. 00:18:14
And you know, the value of small businesses is anything but small. 00:18:18
And sometimes it's hard to get started and they don't have the desired office space. 00:18:22
But one of the cities spoke up. 00:18:26
And. 00:18:28
Turned one of their city buildings into. 00:18:29
Umm I won't don't want to call it club, but just like a membership based service where they have meeting spaces and offices 00:18:31
available for small businesses and and their memberships ran from as low as. 00:18:38
Like 45 or $50 up to 7 or $800. And that's depending on the size of the space and the amount of use you might need. So, you know, 00:18:44
the lower membership might get you one or two, you know. 00:18:49
One or two days out of the month where you need an office to user or conference room to use. 00:18:54
If you need a permanent office space or a temporary office space but you have a month to month contract, or wherever the case may 00:18:59
be. 00:19:02
That you would be on the higher end because you're, you know, that's your day-to-day operation. 00:19:06
So a shared space which? 00:19:09
Could include possibly the theater if there's a room there big enough that would. 00:19:11
Accommodate that, but that's not a full time. 00:19:15
You know gig, you know where you have. 00:19:17
You know city staff member or you know. 00:19:19
Be it Candice or whomever that would fall under. 00:19:21
That would actually keep up with the schedule of. 00:19:24
The office spaces where you know you do have a. 00:19:27
You know, a little bit of a revenue stream coming into the. 00:19:29
You know, kind of cover the cost and expenses in the in the building. 00:19:31
But it's a low membership to give somebody a large benefit, you know, trying to get off the ground with a small business. 00:19:35
While Mr. Amos is here too, I know there's a lot of. 00:19:46
Space and the current design that has dropped ceilings. 00:19:50
And uh. 00:19:54
Space already has some acoustic. 00:19:55
Uh, built in. 00:19:59
And we are wondering about the air handling system and having to modify that and all the lighting and whether or not. 00:20:01
Umm, you could design offices in such a way that. 00:20:10
Umm, we would leave the open ceilings. 00:20:15
If we. 00:20:18
Are able. 00:20:20
Oh, the clerk is asking if you would please come to the microphone. 00:20:27
For the people. 00:20:32
Watching at home. 00:20:33
With that, there are certain areas we have to have. 00:20:51
Both fire separation. 00:20:55
And also sound separation, so there are. 00:20:57
Particular areas that there will be confidential. 00:21:00
Conversations that we need to be aware. 00:21:02
What areas would those be? 00:21:05
Usually the conference areas. 00:21:07
There would be some offices, I think, personnel certainly. 00:21:11
You wouldn't want. 00:21:14
Those those walls need to go all the way up and have certain acoustic control in them, but. 00:21:15
But men in secure areas such as. 00:21:21
City Clerk's areas. 00:21:23
Yes, we need to be. 00:21:25
More secure with. 00:21:27
I'm not sure what we one of the other plans I provided there was. 00:21:29
With the ceiling surfaces but. 00:21:33
I know the secure storage area and the safe for those obviously would have. 00:21:36
Secure ceilings, but yes. 00:21:41
Yeah, I'm not sure. We just have a regular drop ceiling in the. 00:21:43
City Clerk's and. 00:21:47
I'm not sure if that's adequate or not, but. 00:21:49
You know, for. 00:21:52
Somebody climbing up in the ceiling and dropping down in another room easily or whatever, but. 00:21:55
There's some things I'd say certainly for consideration that. 00:22:01
Need to happen so. 00:22:06
How much more money is it going to cost? 00:22:08
To those enclosed offices. 00:22:11
How are you going to get air conditioning heat in there? 00:22:13
We were planning on reusing all of the majority of the existing rooftop systems. 00:22:17
Do what now we were planning to reuse. 00:22:22
All of the existing rooftop systems. 00:22:25
OK. And reduct? 00:22:27
Into those places that's that's not going to be a humongous job. 00:22:29
Should not be there. 00:22:33
Going to more of an open ceiling concept, we'll just have to evaluate it from the mechanical standpoint. 00:22:35
See what the best solutions that. There's a main trunk system in there now that has just. 00:22:42
Dead end drops of. 00:22:46
Where the air is coming out. 00:22:49
Is that correct in summaries? Yes, it's amazing. 00:22:50
And so. 00:22:53
Tying into those trunks with flexible ducting. 00:22:55
If you if you had the opportunity to go in the building prior to. 00:22:58
The phase, phase. 00:23:01
There were several offices in there that had. 00:23:04
What Miss Travis is talking about? 00:23:07
That main office once you come out of. 00:23:10
We're not city manager's office would be. 00:23:12
It had a. 00:23:16
A flex pipe. 00:23:17
That came down into that space with the grid signal. 00:23:19
So that it's just a. 00:23:22
It's just a flex trunk coming off and going to it. 00:23:24
Implant the part, sorry. And that was my. 00:23:29
Biggest question with the enclosed offices. 00:23:32
Is how you're going to get heat and electing, you know, heat and air conditioning. 00:23:35
Yeah. Well, but the modifications to the existing system I guess, is that your question? Yes. 00:23:40
Yeah, yeah. 00:23:47
So do you need to have? 00:23:50
You have 13 bathrooms on either side of the. 00:23:52
Council chambers. Is it necessary? Is there a certain? 00:23:55
Requirement for how many bathrooms the bathrooms those bathrooms are existing. 00:23:58
See how there's 13 up there, 13 down there? 00:24:07
I think both bathrooms already there, aren't they? 00:24:11
Yes. 00:24:14
Where you see the bathrooms? 00:24:17
And. 00:24:20
If I remember right. 00:24:22
You've got the ones above where the. 00:24:25
Emergency operations sound was going to be that we were talking about. 00:24:28
You also have additional bathrooms down. 00:24:31
On the very bottom. 00:24:35
By the Executive Highway. 00:24:37
Then there was 2 bathrooms in the. 00:24:39
Main Street area. 00:24:43
Well, but we're we're asking about the existing. 00:24:44
So those are. 00:24:48
Here and here. 00:24:50
If you have 26 bathrooms. 00:24:55
I mean, is it just a? 00:24:57
A distance travel I can understand about the showers. 00:24:58
But those other bathrooms isn't necessary to have more since you already have 26 bathrooms. 00:25:01
The ones in the Municipal Court, absolutely. 00:25:06
Because that's. 00:25:09
Going to be operate if. 00:25:10
Under this plan, would have been operated totally independent of the rest of the facility. 00:25:11
It was the same in the Main St. JDA chamber area. 00:25:16
That was designed to be operated totally independent of the rest of the facility. 00:25:20
The Main Street area was also taking consideration of having nighttime events when. 00:25:24
When the actual building would have been closed but you had public in there. 00:25:29
For the event of some solar. 00:25:33
And they don't have to. 00:25:35
Walk all the way through the building to get to the. 00:25:36
To those buildings, that's what consideration was when we were laying this out. 00:25:39
Let me just ask it this way just to. 00:25:44
To I wrote down 5 possible things. 00:25:47
Cost savings if you could tell me which one is possible? 00:25:50
To save and which is not possible to take off the list of. 00:25:54
The one thing I have is the bathrooms, the extra bathrooms. 00:25:57
The event space, as the mayor already pointed out, and just maybe coming back to that later or renting that. 00:26:00
The temporary. 00:26:05
Using the Municipal Court just like we do now. 00:26:07
In the council chambers, so leaving that out. 00:26:11
The drop ceilings, as Miss Lynn pointed out. 00:26:13
And then the removal of council offices. 00:26:16
There were just five things that I had that would save money. 00:26:19
Which which of those are doable and is? 00:26:22
That's something we can look at. 00:26:25
We can look at whatever you want to look at. 00:26:29
I would recommend. 00:26:31
Depending on what happens with that. 00:26:34
That Main Street area. 00:26:36
Whatever we come up with there. 00:26:39
That may be. 00:26:41
A means of dropping some bathrooms. 00:26:42
I would. 00:26:46
I personally would recommend. 00:26:48
Keeping the court there, it may not be one of the things we build out immediately. 00:26:51
But I would keep the separation. 00:26:55
Of those facilities, I'm not saying not I had written down temporarily. So leaving that off right now if you left that off and 00:27:00
they can operate in the Municipal Court, but we have the space to put that later just to get in because I know everybody wants to 00:27:05
get in and that was the reason for the addendum. 00:27:10
On the bid. 00:27:15
Because that is something we can come back later and do that whole. 00:27:16
North so I keep saying N but that top of the page. 00:27:20
Build out at a later time. 00:27:25
Right, right. 00:27:27
Absolutely. I mean, that was the reason we had looked at it in that manner. 00:27:28
Charlie and I went over and looked at the space and I know we have the sub museum going in some of the warehouse space and the 00:27:32
wall they are actually taking. 00:27:37
All the frontage. 00:27:43
There and we talked about the idea of turning the wall the other way so that we would have a unit. 00:27:45
With frontage space. 00:27:52
Available. 00:27:54
That we could. 00:27:55
You know, just somebody else. 00:27:57
And generate some revenue. 00:27:59
So instead of having the wall run. 00:28:02
Parallel to the frontage space, it would be perpendicular. 00:28:05
And I'm not trying to. 00:28:12
We need to go back and look at the agreement. 00:28:15
I'm trying to remember if we could we were allowed to do. 00:28:20
Part of the purchase agreement that we can only have so much space leased out to the private sector. Is that correct or for retail 00:28:24
space? Yeah. 00:28:27
Yeah. So we don't know how much that is. 00:28:31
I have to. I'll go back into that. 00:28:33
It's like 10 I think like 10,000 square feet maybe if I'm not fault. 00:28:36
What if it's like a business incubator or somebody, some space at the state? 00:28:39
Could provide funding for. 00:28:44
You know, it was, I know it was retail space, but that we discussed that might not own that umbrella where we could have the 00:28:49
commuter space that we described. 00:28:53
Yeah. 00:28:58
I guess one of my questions to the. 00:29:03
To the court area. 00:29:07
I think there's. 00:29:09
7. 00:29:10
Seven offices in addition to the. 00:29:13
Conference space. Holding room. 00:29:15
And of course then, then file rooms and whatnot and. 00:29:18
And I'm not quite sure about the seating capacity there. 00:29:23
Compared to. 00:29:26
You know, you know what? I guess those are benches, pews, or. 00:29:28
Looking away, we're looking at. 00:29:32
Yeah, old church games, actually. 00:29:35
Easier to claim they don't. 00:29:37
Standing and it's all. 00:29:39
I just wonder about, you know, you know, especially if we're trying to make room for. 00:29:43
A potential theater or something, you know, kind of what? 00:29:48
If there's any contraction that we could do in that space a little bit, that would still be very. 00:29:53
Serviceable or not? 00:29:57
That's obviously not my area expertise to know what they. 00:30:00
What they need, but with the amount of offices and I know we I know we wanted. 00:30:03
Officer. 00:30:07
You know, clients to meet with their attorneys and stuff, you know? 00:30:09
Umm, but uh, and maybe, maybe that's, maybe we have the bare minimum there, I don't know. 00:30:13
If you were looking for a space that you could do. 00:30:18
A community theater or something like that in. 00:30:22
I would I would look. 00:30:25
More towards that event space where you see the events and event lobby. 00:30:28
That area in there. 00:30:32
Because it is a little bit more flexible. 00:30:34
It is also able to. 00:30:36
Excuse to turn the quarantine from the rest of the building. 00:30:38
I guess that's right. Wednesday that. 00:30:42
So they could. 00:30:45
We don't have to have staff there when they're. 00:30:46
When you're running your offense. 00:30:49
If that makes any sense. 00:30:51
I mean, we may have to. 00:30:53
Figure out some means of making sure they have access. 00:30:54
To the large restroom at the top of the building. 00:30:59
On top page. 00:31:02
And I guess to the other point, Mr. Nash Meadows question. 00:31:06
Umm, you know. 00:31:11
The Council. 00:31:14
We don't need those. 00:31:17
You know we don't. I'm a. 00:31:19
I'm gonna go. 00:31:23
One of the original people that. 00:31:25
Was on board when we. 00:31:26
Drew up his plan. 00:31:28
And. 00:31:30
At the time we figured it would cause. 00:31:33
Maybe a couple $1,000,000 to get in. 00:31:35
But it proved that it's it's a lot more now. 00:31:39
I agree that we need to. 00:31:45
Try to cut. 00:31:47
Corners as much as we can. 00:31:50
But I want this. 00:31:53
City Hall to be a. 00:31:54
I don't want to piece meal it. 00:31:57
For one thing, you know, if we're going to do it, I think we should do it right. 00:31:59
And I don't. 00:32:03
Feel like we should. 00:32:05
Cut a few corners just to save. 00:32:10
15 or $20,000. 00:32:13
You know if it's a great amount of money that we can save. 00:32:15
That's fine, but things are going to go up every day. 00:32:19
And the longer we wait. 00:32:21
And the longer we postpone this. 00:32:23
The higher things. 00:32:25
And especially with terrorists. 00:32:27
You know it's liable to go up even more. 00:32:28
So you know, we can twiddle our thumbs and. 00:32:31
Try to save save money. 00:32:34
With a bathroom taken out here or. 00:32:37
Something taken out here. 00:32:39
And it's going to inconvenience us. 00:32:41
Later on down the line. 00:32:43
Where if you leave some of these things in. 00:32:45
We know what we need. 00:32:48
And just go ahead and pay for it. 00:32:50
And stop waiting for. 00:32:52
Prices to increase. 00:32:54
Over and over again. 00:32:56
If you take another beard, another. 00:32:58
Yeah, six months or so. 00:33:00
Prices may go up again. 00:33:02
So you know. 00:33:04
My thing is if you want it. 00:33:06
Done. And you want it done, right? 00:33:09
Citizens of Saint Mary's. 00:33:11
Go ahead and get it done. 00:33:13
I don't disagree with any of that. 00:33:16
In terms that, I think we need to go ahead and get in there. 00:33:19
And that allows us to do something with this property. 00:33:23
But I guess. 00:33:27
In my mind, the essential. 00:33:27
Question is. 00:33:29
Are we? 00:33:33
Willing to ask? 00:33:34
The citizens which are residential, primarily residential taxpayers. 00:33:36
To spend $7,000,000 that was on the base queen. 00:33:43
Quote to get into some office space. 00:33:46
Umm, or or. 00:33:51
Are we gonna ask? 00:33:54
The people who know how to do this, which would be you and. 00:33:55
Some other. 00:33:59
Engineers. 00:34:00
If we can really truly trim a couple $1,000,000 off of this, is there a way to do that and still have it be? 00:34:01
Nice space because. 00:34:10
I can tell you that I've heard from a lot of my constituents that they don't want to spend. 00:34:12
$7,000,000 And that's the same conversation we had about the budget. 00:34:17
And we had a line item in there for $6 million. 00:34:22
And we took it out. 00:34:27
Because. 00:34:28
We were going to go back to the drawing board and try and. 00:34:30
Do some, you know, some substantive? 00:34:34
Reductions in cost and none of us. 00:34:38
Know how to do that? 00:34:41
I mean. 00:34:43
We need to rely on your expertise to help us. 00:34:44
Show us some options that might really reduce the cost by a few million. 00:34:48
Dollars, and I don't know if that's even possible. 00:34:54
Well, if we eliminate the entire north of this project. 00:34:56
That's half the building. 00:35:00
So all the Council chambers events. 00:35:01
Municipal Court. 00:35:03
We don't do that right now. We get into City Hall. 00:35:04
And then we sell this. 00:35:08
And then we go back and then build. 00:35:09
Out what we want later. 00:35:11
But that's that's the base bid is. 00:35:13
That is includes not doing that. So that's $7,000,000 has nothing to do with Municipal Court event space or it's just the bottom 00:35:16
part of it. 00:35:20
It's just 7 million and then obviously. 00:35:25
The only thing I can think of is. 00:35:28
Bathrooms and drops, yeah. 00:35:29
And you're talking about what? 00:35:32
Reform not. 00:35:33
$30,000 for investments. 00:35:35
You know, I've been in some beautiful office space and some bigger cities that's open. 00:35:37
And the acoustics are already good in that building. 00:35:43
I mean it's. 00:35:47
Gorgeous space. 00:35:48
That we could be very proud of, but I don't know if it's any less expensive. 00:35:51
We're finishing up. We have this. 00:35:56
Huge amount of square footage. 00:35:58
And we're finishing off a lot of it. I don't know. 00:36:01
If we. 00:36:04
Made that much square footage either. 00:36:05
But I I'm pretty sure we don't want to spend $7,000,000. 00:36:09
Just to get in there. 00:36:13
And the part of what we. 00:36:15
Attempted to do through the planning process also in Municipal Court and with a lot of different departments was. 00:36:16
Looking at what current staff levels are what? 00:36:24
The current. 00:36:26
Caseload and. 00:36:28
Number of people coming into Municipal Court. 00:36:31
And looking at your community decides it is now. 00:36:33
And knowing there's. 00:36:37
It's fixing to increase tremendously. 00:36:38
So we've got to be very careful that we don't. 00:36:41
Touch things to a point. 00:36:45
That in 10 years your population has swelled and now your staff. 00:36:47
Everything else is undersized. 00:36:51
I agree with that too. 00:36:54
Yeah. You know, I think that's smart. 00:36:57
Well, right now, in this building, we'll. 00:36:59
Busting at the scenes. 00:37:01
You can't go in any office feeling where you. 00:37:03
Cluttered with boxes. 00:37:06
Bags and things to. 00:37:09
To try to get around, we knew that we were going to have to do this. 00:37:10
Several years ago. 00:37:14
We were fortunate enough to. 00:37:18
Get into this. 00:37:20
Deal with Express Scripts and. 00:37:21
And get a villain that's. 00:37:24
Sizable a building that we can. 00:37:26
We can get anything that we want. 00:37:29
And the senior citizens are doing great in their area. 00:37:33
And I don't think that the citizens of Saint Mary's. 00:37:39
Need even need anything less? 00:37:43
In other words, I want to put. I want to get this where. 00:37:50
10 years down the line. 20 years down the line. 00:37:53
We have something that we can still be proud of. 00:37:57
I don't want us to have this same problem that we're having here. 00:38:00
In the next 10 years. 00:38:03
And like he said, the growth is coming. 00:38:05
And you need a. 00:38:07
Is there a reason we've had such few bids? Like what are we doing as far as being aggressive to go after maybe extending our reach 00:38:10
for bids? 00:38:14
The big. 00:38:19
The one bid we had, we had reached out through the department administrative Services, which has a. 00:38:21
A contract build. 00:38:28
Service I guess is the way to call it referred to as. 00:38:30
Sometimes when you go to the shows. 00:38:34
You'll you'll meet them. 00:38:37
The original, so we dealt with them. 00:38:39
Originally. 00:38:42
And that's. 00:38:43
Basically the same group that we dealt, we got the bidding on. 00:38:44
I know that doesn't answer your question, I just wanted to get a blowback history associated with it. 00:38:49
They we had. 00:38:54
Some local folks that were interested in it. 00:38:58
And got down and. 00:39:02
Basically, time had gotten away from them after we had even extended. 00:39:03
The bid. 00:39:07
Opening deadline. 00:39:10
For them to allow them to have additional time to get their numbers and stuff together. 00:39:11
And. 00:39:17
They just at the last minute opted not to provide us with a bid. 00:39:18
But we've advertised. 00:39:24
Both statewide. 00:39:25
Local everywhere. 00:39:27
OK, we're gonna. 00:39:29
Need to wrap up in this particular session because we can prepare. 00:39:31
Audio visual for the. 00:39:35
For the. 00:39:38
Alcohol. 00:39:40
So. 00:39:42
Think maybe? 00:39:43
The next step kind of take some of the comments we've had here, maybe Robbie and I can communicate with. 00:39:44
Mr. Amos and talk about some of the options and. 00:39:49
To see if we can get some ballpark. 00:39:53
Ideas of some things before we go to. 00:39:56
Too far in depth and. 00:39:59
Well, in the meantime I can start. 00:40:01
Evaluating some of the other things that. 00:40:03
We've discussed to see. 00:40:05
Sort of magnitude of. 00:40:08
Of cost. 00:40:10
OK. Thank you so much for being here tonight. 00:40:12
Thank you. Thank you. 00:40:14