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Highlands Today

County Moves Ahead With New Sheriff's Building

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By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: September 24, 2008

SEBRING - The Highlands County Commissioners took a big step Tuesday toward building the new law enforcement building for the sheriff's office, estimated at $11.1 million.

Despite one commissioner and several citizens saying they fear the nation's economy could slide further into trouble, the commissioners approved 16 building firms as qualified to bid on the project.

That paves the way for contracts to be awarded later this year and construction to start in January, with the possibility of an unusually good price from builders hungry for work in this economic downturn.

Twenty-one firms tried to qualify as bidders, and five were eliminated through a detailed rating system scored by six county officials.

Only one Highlands County company, A.D. Morgan, is among the 16 qualified bidders for the general contract. A.D. Morgan has had an office in Sebring for more than a decade and has built several Highlands County schools.

With the building industry stalled throughout the nation, and especially in Florida, the county might get the new law enforcement facility built for $1 million less now than a year ago, according to Ian Reeves. He is an owner of Architects Design Group of Winter Haven, which is designing the building.

"The bidding environment now is very aggressive," Reeves told the commissioners.

"Right now," he added, "the sub trades (subcontractors) are very hungry," due not only to a lack of work in general but also to very few large projects in the works.

Reeves said an estimated $21.5 million government building his firm is working on in Cape Coral is going to come in at $19.1 million and the new Sarasota Police Station his firm designed had an estimated cost of $37 million, but the actual cost will probably come in $2 million below that.

"Had we done this project a year ago," Reeves said, referring to the Highlands County Sheriff's Law Enforcement Building, "it probably would have been a million dollars more."

If all goes on schedule, construction of the building should start in January and be finished in 14 months, in March or April 2010.

Ray Napper was one of three citizens who questioned going ahead with this $11 million project at a time when the national economy is in crisis and could be heading into more trouble. Napper said the sheriff's office staff definitely needs more space, and he called the current facilities for law enforcement personnel "totally inadequate."

But, Napper added, "there's a whole bunch of us out there who think that now is just not the right time" to commit to an $11 million building project. "We out there in the public are afraid of the economy ... and if you're not, then you better have another cup of coffee."

County Commissioner Guy Maxcy brought up a similar concern.

"Some 'big wigs' in this country," he said, "have talked about (the possibility of) a depression." If economic conditions nose dive further, he asked: What would Highlands County do if sales tax collections dropped so low that the county couldn't make its debt payments for the sheriff's building?

People in the audience and county officials broke into laughter when Susan Gant, the architectural project manager on the sheriff's project, answered: "Ask Congress for a bailout."

After the laughter died down over the reference to the $700 billion bailout, pending in Washington, for giant Wall Street firms and banks, County Administrator Michael Wright said he doesn't see a chance for a cataclysmic crash of Highlands County government revenue.

The county now collects about $8 million a year in sales taxes, all of which must be spent on capital improvements, Wright said. Of that, about $1.8 million per year will go toward building the sheriff's law enforcement building.

Current sales tax collections are down about $1.2 million per year, Wright added.

The sales tax revenue could go down by two-thirds of what it is now, Wright said, and the county could still make its loan payments for the sheriff's building.

"That," Wright said, referring to losing two-thirds of current sales tax revenue, "would be a pretty catastrophic event."

Beyond the current slide to $1.2 million less per year than normal, he said, "I don't see them (sales tax collections) slipping much further. I just really don't envision that."

Wright also said that if the economy became so bad that the county lost two-thirds of its current sales tax revenue, not being able to pay a debt on a building would be one of the smaller problems people would face.

Ramon Gavarrete, county engineer, said the sheriff's building is a much-needed project that also will benefit the community by stimulating the local economy.

"When the economy is down, federal, state and local governments do projects so that the construction industry can get kick started," he said.

"A project of this size," he added, "will help the economy, it will help kick start it ... that's one of the avenues a government does use to kick start it."

Building Plans:
http://media.tbo.com/tbo/pdfs/092408colour.pdf

Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com

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