Saluda commissioners unanimously approved a $488,750 budget amendment at the city’s Jan. 13 meeting to cover the next round of renovations to Saluda’s historic city hall.
The funds account for $391,000 in renovation costs and $97,750 in contingency funds for over runs and change orders.
Saluda has also applied for a loan from Macon Bank. Mayor Fred Baisden explained the almost $100,000 contingency fund will help cover potential costs of moving, new Internet access, telephone access and any incidentals.
“That money will be set aside to cover anything we don’t know we might run into when we tear out the ceiling of a 100-year-old building,” Baisden said. “So we added in a little fudge factor just to make sure we are covered if we run into anything we haven’t accounted for.”
Plans for the interior include switching the city hall and the police department to provide more space and new interior openings between the two buildings to provide more safety. Included in the plans are also an elevator shaft and elevator, two offices, meeting room, bathroom and mechanical room. New electrical work and HVAC will also be updated.
Commissioner Carolyn Ashburn late last week said workers were clearing out upstairs, but the real work will begin Feb. 1.
Ashburn said the town had met with the architect to hash out particulars of the renovations. Originally the Saluda police department wanted to be upstairs, but now the officers just want to be together downstairs. This change leaves about half of the upstairs open.
With the upstairs space now available, the Saluda Historical Committee requested the ability to use it as a location for its planned town museum.
During the city council meeting, Ashburn said offering the space would be helpful.
“If we can give that committee a guarantee they could apply for grants through the city. They can’t do that now because they don’t have a building,” Ashburn explained. “The historic committee is working on a book – arcadia book with mostly photographs. We have accumulated a whole lot of the photographs for this book over the last six months. The quality of many of the pictures are very good so they could be blown up and displayed in the space as well.”
Mayor Baisden suggested completing the renovations before the city made any commitments.
“I think we need to see what we’re going to get into here once we tear all the walls down,” he said.
Renovations on the building began in 2011 with replacement of windows and repairs to the roof and brick siding. The 100-year-old Saluda City Hall building was last restored in 1986.