2 rooms, adjoining offices at Capitol OK'd for $1 million+ updates, renovations

The Arkansas House Management Committee voted Thursday to spend more than $1 million to renovate two committee rooms and several adjoining offices.

The upgrades include replacing the heating and cooling systems, technological upgrades to improve live video streaming online, furniture replacements, desk refurbishments, new carpets and more.

The fact that the Capitol is a historic building makes it more expensive to renovate, but it also makes it more worthwhile, said House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia. The Capitol was completed in 1915 at a cost of nearly $2.3 million, according to the secretary of state's website.

"Had other things been done back 20 years ago, 10 years ago, then we might not be looking at some of the expenses we're looking at now," he said. "When you put something off for decades and decades, costs build up."

Furnishings -- which will cost about $237,000 -- are the single most expensive items for Rooms 149 and 151, according to a cost estimate.

About 150 new audience chairs will be purchased in addition to new chairs for committee members and staff, said Gary Clements, president of Clements & Associates Inc., the architect for the project. Existing committee tables will be refinished, he said.

The audio/video system upgrades -- which will cost about $197,000 between the two rooms -- are the second-greatest cost. Audio quality has been poor for the live video streamed on the House website, said Robert Dale, chief of staff for the House.

Additional expenses include about $92,000 for demolition, $65,000 for heating, air conditioning and ventilation upgrades and $62,000 for painting and refinishing.

The project is expected to cost $1,075,594 in total. Clements said work should start in early August and be completed by the end of November. The next regular session of the Legislature begins in January, but legislative committees and other groups meet throughout the year in the Capitol.

A grant from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council will pay $824,000 of the cost. A transfer for the Bureau of Legislative Research's budget will provide $175,000. The House maintenance and operations budget will pay the remaining $76,594.

The committee rooms are important to the public, Dale said.

"The Capitol is one of the oldest historical buildings in Arkansas and it's used. You can have a historical building -- a beautiful building -- but no one's really in there, but the Capitol is used by thousands of people a year," he said. "The committee rooms are especially used. That's the way a lot of people get introduced to the Capitol."

Gillam said he also wanted to renovate Rooms 130 and 138. However, the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council gave the House about half of the money it requested.

Metro on 07/29/2016

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