The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG – At their Sept. 20 regular meeting, the Waitsburg City Council approved a $4,500 purchase of design plans to aid in the structural assessment of the Waitsburg Fairgrounds grandstands, which have been deemed unsound.

Council member KC Kuykendall said that structural engineer John Raby, who specializes in older, pole barn style buildings, had inspected the grandstands last month and was confident that it would be a “very doable renovation, with no reason that the building couldn’t be restored to sound structural shape.”

Kuykendall said that the city has no plans or drawings for the grandstands and that, in order to perform load calculations, the engineer would prefer to have plans drawn up. Kuykendall said the plans would be used in perpetuity and would be included in the release for construction drawings when the project is sent out for bid.

“Without a set of drawings, and only having a few engineering details, it opens the city up to a general contractor getting the bid award because he low balled it, then coming back and saying he didn’t understand that because he didn’t have a set of plans,” Kuykendall said.

Kuykendall recommended that the city expand the structural assessment scope to allow the engineer to hire a drafting firm to produce the plans. A compensation statement submitted by John C. Raby & Associates listed a total cost for the assessment, a new set of plans, and two site visits, at $9,150.

City Manager Randy Hinchliffe said the city has already paid a $1,700 retainer, which has been used up. When asked, he said there were no funds readily available in the budget to cover the additional expense. He said the city has obligated itself to $5,000 for a war monument and also has an audit coming up next year, which the city must pay for.

“If the council doesn’t have information on a renovation and construction estimate to take to the citizens this fall, to decide whether or not to begin in the spring or shortly thereafter, we’ve lost our construction window,” Kuykendall said. “We have a building that the city is aware of that is structurally unsound, with caution tape and boarded up,” he added.

Mayor Marty Dunn asked Kuykendall about funds from previous stall rentals that had been collected by Kuykendall, through a previous fairgrounds committee, that were to be returned to the city.

“The hope was that the $3,500 to $4,000 was to be seed money to go and get some curb dollars, for instance, because the state will very likely kick $40,000-$50,000 our way to do a lot of master planning work,” Kuykendall said. “It’s entirely up to the city how to best utilize those funds. If it’s putting it toward this, then that’s fine,” he added.

Audience member Walt Gobel said he would like to know exactly how much money is available and exactly where it is at. Kuykendall said he would be happy to provide Hinchliffe with an accounting of the funds he had collected.

“I’ve held those funds until such a time that we could leverage them for curb dollars to help us with further activities. Now that the council has requested that the funds be turned over for the benefit of the fairgrounds revitalization, that’s what’s going to happen. The exact dollar amount will be clarified when I give an accounting to Randy. I don’t have that dollar amount here,” Kuykendall said.

Gobel challenged Kuykendall, asking if the council allowed him to keep that fund rather than giving it to the city where it could draw interest. Kuykendall responded that Gobel was presiding mayor at the time. Dunn directed Kuykendall to get with Hinchliffe and turn the funds over to the city to be used towards the grandstands renovation plans.

“I think we have a potential asset and current liability sitting there and we need to move forward on it,” said council member Kevin House.

The council voted unanimously to adjust the scope of the grandstands structural assessment to include the drawings requested by the engineer.