LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock won’t be using federal stimulus money to pay for a new roof on the city’s police headquarters.
The city’s Board of Directors voted Tuesday evening to use short-term loan money that had been set aside for establishing a backup computer system to pay the $164,564.01 cost of the new roof.
City officials had sought to pay for replacing the perennially leaking flat roof with money from a $1.9 million federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant awarded in late 2009.
Document set
LRPD Headquarters roofing documents
But last week the U.S.Department of Energy squelched the plan, City Manager Bruce Moore said Wednesday.
The Energy Department said the city could use the grant money to make up the difference between installing an energy-efficient roof instead of a conventional roof, but not for the entire replacement cost, Moore said. The federal agency administers the grant program, which is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or 2009 stimulus package.
That being the case, Moore said, he recommended that the city board forgo any grant money and authorize shelving some parts of the backup computer system to pay to install an energy-efficient roof that uses “light reflective” material to reduce energy consumption and heating-and-cooling costs.
“This is an emergency, and we just needed to find the funding,” he said Wednesday.
“I think it’s prudent to set aside the money” for a backup computer system, he said. “But it’s also important to make sure our employees are safe from the elements.”
The city doesn’t have a budget for capital improvements, such as replacing the roof. Instead, it relies heavily on short-term financing to pay for major projects and purchases such as police cars.
The city set aside about $400,000 for the “disaster recovery” backup computer system in 2008 as part of its last short-term loan of $4.9 million, Moore said.
Little Rock, which cut more than $6 million from its 2010 budget and laid off20 employees at the beginning of this year, can’t afford any additional debt payments, Moore has said.
Some of the backup computer system projects will go forward as planned, but others will “be scaled back,” he said.
The stimulus money will now go toward heating, ventilation and air-conditioning improvements in other city buildings as originally planned, he said. Parts of the grant had already been set aside for building “safe-routes-to-schools” sidewalks, city documents show.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the board unanimously approved without discussion using some of the short-term loan funds to award a roofing contract to Mid-Ark Roofing, which submitted the lowest bid of $127,569, at least $50,000 less than city officials had expected. The roofing company lists an address of Bryant on its website.
The board also approved allocating $11,481.21 to pay taxes and a 20 percent “contingency” of $25,513.80 in case roofing crews find additional problems that need to fixed, Moore said.
A formal contract should be signed by the end of the week, with construction starting next week, he said.
The project is expected to take at least 45 days, putting the city “in good shape” to meet a Nov. 17 deadline to replace the nearly 50-year-old roof, Moore said.
The Arkansas Department of Labor imposed the deadline in mid-August after an inspector cited the city for a “serious hazard” and deemed the building at 700 W. Markham St. unsafe. The Labor Department oversees occupational safety and health at public buildings, including state and municipal properties, but rarely levies fines for violations.
The Labor Department’s inspection, sparked by a complaint, found several areas of leaking water near electrical wiring and panel boxes, as well as “raised and cracked” roofing material on the building where about 200 people work. None of the building’s problems were severe enough to warrant evacuation.
Later inspections by an engineer found that the leaks hadn’t caused “significant corrosion or damage” to the building’s structural framing. But an air-quality study found that the leaky roof, and ductwork condensation, have led to mold growing in the building that could make some workers sick.
Two out of eight indoor air samples taken on Aug. 19 showed “abnormal” elevated levels of mold, including toxic Stachybotrys, that could cause allergic reactions and problems for people with asthma, the EMTEC Engineering Management Corp. study found.
City Building Services Manager Jessie Trigleth said new ceiling tiles have been ordered to replace old moldy ones. An engineer will visit the building next week to give recommendations on getting rid of the mold, including possible fixes to the ventilation systems, he said.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 09/23/2010