I am amazed at the confusion on coffee row, among other places, on the status of the Civic Auditorium in spite of considerable coverage in last week’s Mercury.
It’s known that a recent engineering report identified serious structural concerns and listed million dollars in high priority work. However, the serious structural work is not as serious or urgent as some people think and accounts for about $300,000. The report lists $2.9 million of high priority work ($1.4 million of which is architectural), but that appears to be for a significant upgrade.
The high priority items are for “life safety or code compliance where immediate action is required.” Most of the high priority items appear to be for “code compliance,” but if you see the list you begin to wonder how many are actually required and what immediate action means.
The structural inspection was done on Aug. 17. If there was a concern of imminent collapse, do you suppose the engineer would have waited until November to mention it?
There are only three structural items listed as high priority:
1) A recommendation that an assessment of roof trusses be carried out within a year ($25,000). That does not sound to me like immediate action.
2) Further assessment and repair of wood columns ($250,000). The report stated that if the owner didn’t intend to follow up shortly with this work, the engineer recommends access be restricted. Apparently we do not intend to follow up shortly with this column work.
3) Repair in the next year of a cooling tower frame which is external to the building ($50,000). This has nothing to do with the Civic structure itself.
Some of the code related items deemed to be high priority include adding a $15,000 sink and grease interceptor to the kitchen, putting heat in the press box, adding heaters to exit doors, upgrading the lighting system, upgrading the ventilation system, conducting a camera inspection of sewer lines, and upgrading electrical systems, as well as obvious maintenance items like replacing damaged gas pipe hangers and non-working plumbing fixtures.
I wonder if a new rink is even an option. If so, how much it would cost? When would it be completed? How much would it cost to demolish the Civic?
I think the issue needs a lot more work. Three rinks are of great value to our community in my opinion. Obviously a considerable amount of money needs to be spent, if only to tear down the Civic. That may be the best option, but let’s make sure the decision is made carefully with sound information.
A lot is being concluded on the basis of a $16,000 engineering report which stated a lot of information was not available.
