(12/16) The rain held off just long enough for the "official" ground-breaking of the new Woodsboro Town Hall. After months of delays, preparatory excavation began on the site in November and by the time of the groundbreaking ceremony, trenches for the foundation were in the process of being dug and stakes had been positioned outlining the driveway and parking lots.
The ground-breaking came almost a year after Burgess Barnes had hoped it would. In the November 2023 Town Council meeting, where Barnes briefed the Council on the status of bids the Town was receiving, Barnes told the Council he was "eager to get the foundation and basement of the building in place before winter sets in. Those are the items that can be adversely affected by cold weather, so I would like to get them done as soon as possible," he said. "Once in place, the actual construction of the building can go on, no matter how cold the winter is."
The onset of last year’s winter, however, was not the deciding factor in when the ground-breaking would occur, but the unexpected price tag.
In 2018, under direction by the former Town administration, Woodsboro purchased a lot at 503 S. Main St., which was considered a prime location for an official Town Hall. Unfortunately for the Town, the width of the lot was not large enough for the building's design. So, in 2022, the Town purchased the JR Sports Bar and Restaurant lot, which was almost double the size of the original lot location.
All was going according to plan until the initial round of bids received in December of 2023 set everyone back on their heels. When the Town began the process several years back, the Town was prepared to spend $800,000. That estimate was blown out of the water when the bids came in, the lowest bid being $1.6 million.
Commissioner John Cutshall let out a laugh as he read over the proposed bid numbers. His statement, "well we are certainly not going to be spending that much," summed up the feelings of his fellow commissioners.
After a closed-door meeting, the Council agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Sanbower Builders of Myersville that if they could make recommendations for changes in the current design that would get the cost of building the Town Hall down to $1 million, the Town would sign a contract with them to build it.
Working closely with Sanbower, the Town was able to get the cost of the actual building down to $1,040,000. Not included in this figure was $356,000 for site work, i.e. grading, paving, driveways, etc., for a total of $1,396,000.
The final figure however, which was revealed to the Town Council at the June Council meeting, still stunned the Council, who expressed concern over spending that sum of money while the Town was facing unknown costs associated with upgrading the Town’s water and sewer systems.
Commissioner John Cutshall proposed the Town search out another bid in hopes of getting a lower one to consider. But Barnes pointed out that the Town had signed a contract with the contractor, and they could not legally seek another bid unless the contractor agreed to opt out, "and even then, we have no idea if another round will result in a larger cost, as costs have already gone up since this bid was submitted."
Commissioner Jessie Case proposed delaying the final vote for a month. But when pressed by Barnes on what he would do during that time, Case shrugged his shoulders and said he "just wanted to take the time to look over the proposed details of the building."
Case’s response drew a friendly rebuke from Barnes, who repeated that the Council had been briefed repeatedly on the building and had been "thinking it over for years now."
In the end, the Council split 2 to 2 on moving forward with building the Town Hall. Barnes broke the tie in favor of moving forward with the construction. Since the vote, construction has been on hold while various building related permits were approved.
Even though it was well advertised, none of the Town Council attended the ground-breaking, nor did any of the state level elected officials Barnes had invited. Only County Council President Brad Young, Councilwoman Renee Knapp and Councilmember Mason Carter attended, as well as representatives from Woodsboro Bank, which holds the mortgage for the new hall.
The 2,960 square-foot building will include four offices, a file room and two conference rooms, one large enough to seat 40. Its primary resident will be the Town manager.
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