Tentative budget and date revealed for municipal project

Story by Shannon Taylor Senior Investigative Reporter

Members of A2H Construction and the Dresden board of mayor and alderman met Monday, Dec. 19 to go over the budget for the municipal complex project—a close to 7-million-dollar project—with a tentative start date of April 2023.

The (tentative) budget was broken down in the design-development phase with $490,000 going to general conditions (14 months), $250,000 to site development, $435,600 to concrete, $970,750 to masonry, $685,000 to steel (includes canopies), $75,000 to carpentry, $199,711 to moisture protection, $571,450 to openings (frames, doors, glass), $580,000 to finishes (drywall, painting, flooring, ceilings), $67,060 to special ties, $1,126,032 to mechanical (fire protection, plumbing, HVAC) and $695,000 to electrical. The total cost including CM and contingency fees would be $6,988,119. This number did not include design fees or fire pump.

The project would be a 14-month project and the budget is tentative because the city would be accepting multiple bids for each part of the project so the price could go up or down, depending. A2H said that the price would probably end up being a “little less” than the budget they presented.

Alderman Ralph Cobb said that he hoped they would see some local people making bids instead of only Milan and Jackson.

City Recorder Jennifer Branscum said that the coverage on the buildings was close to a million dollars minus the costs of expenses that could be used towards the project. There is also close to $60,000 that the city received in tornado donations as well as some CDs the city has that could be used. Branscum also said that there could be some FEMA funds that would go towards it as well. Those numbers should be made clearer by the next board meeting and before a vote is made on the project.

Branscum said that the city’s general fund only has a million dollars set aside in the checking account and that amount is not “free money to spend on projects like this” but that it goes to payroll and for paying bills.

Mayor Mark Maddox stated that “I guess, bottom line is, you guys will have to take close to an 8-million-dollar loan.”

As far as what the board has voted on for the design phase was the interior layout of the municipal complex, but not the exterior-which still needs to be voted on. A2H said they were “about 75% done with design” at this point.

The city has not yet acquired the Tony Winstead property. Maddox said they have not yet come to an agreement on that.

The tentative start date would be around April 1, 2023, and the 14-month time frame would start from there.

Maddox said, “we have a building going up within that site area and we’ll be looking at in January that there is an immediate need for a sewer line-I can tell you that the Winstead property has gone back to negotiation, but we’re going to have to make some sort of move on the sewer line in January and that will be on the agenda.”

More information will be provided as we receive it. The next board meeting will be Monday, Jan. 9 at 6:00 p.m.