Project up for vote Jan. 11

Commissioners and citizens discussed the SPLOST-funded courthouse renovation and addition at the Dec. 14 meeting but board members voted 3-1 to postpone the decision until all commissioners can be present at the Jan. 11 meeting with commissioner Don Collins opposing.’Between now and Jan. 11, you can look at the value engineering items proposed,’ said Ben Carter of Carter Watkins Associates Architects as he addressed the board about negotiations made with the low bidder to reduce the cost to $2,670,000. ‘Over the past couple weeks, I reviewed the project with the contractor, adding and subtracting from a list of items to change that will not take away from the usability of the project.’ Some of the larger cost-saving changes include installing only one elevator instead of two elevators, reducing the number of security cameras from five total to only two in the holding cells, eliminating waterproofing measures on the exterior of the building’s foundation, repairing any rotten joists from below instead of tearing down to bare joists and relocating the existing HVAC system instead of replacing it.