News

Fixing N.C. EMS Base Would Be Costly

08/05/2015

Aug. 04--LENOIR -- It would cost about as much to renovate the current Emergency Medical Services base in downtown Lenoir as it would to build a new base, but it would cost much more to make the entire existing building useful again, according to construction estimates gathered by the county's emergency services director.

Robbie Wilkie got the estimates after members of the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners said in March they wanted a better idea of the costs involved for suggestions by Wilkie and EMS officials to either renovate or replace the base.

The base, at 616 West Ave. NW, has rusted steel joists and floor decking, water infiltration into the building, and some asbestos-containing materials, according to reports from the Taylor and Viola engineering firm in Hickory and IBS Environmental Services of Lenoir.

EMS officials told the commissioners in the spring they were concerned about mold in the base building, but IBS found only a common type of outdoor mold that is an allergen but not a serious health threat, according to the report.

Removing the asbestos would cost more than $30,000, IBS estimated.

The Moss-Marlow Building Co. estimated that renovating the building -- including taking the walls apart down to the studs, installing new sheetrock throughout and repairing or replacing walls and concrete floors -- would cost nearly $330,000.

That comes to a total of a little less than $460,000.

Replacing the heating and air system would add $98,000, according to McMillon Electric Co., and replacing all lighting would be about $20,000.

In March EMS officials said the estimated cost of building a new EMS base was about $420,000, plus the cost of the site.

If the county chooses to renovate the existing EMS base, the work outlined in the estimates Wilkie received would leave the second floor of the building gutted and vacant, however. Wilkie said that because the building, built in 1961, has no elevator, EMS officials stopped using the second floor after some falls on the stairs resulted in worker's compensation costs.

Installing an elevator to put the second floor back in use would cost about $150,000, and there would be an additional cost for installing office walls, according to Wilkie's memo to the county commissioners.

There is a third option that EMS officials proposed in March: buying houses at a few sites scattered around the area that could be turned into small bases, which officials said would improve emergency response time because those bases would be closer to population areas than the downtown base is. No cost comparison for that option was included in the reports Wilkie forwarded to the commissioners this week.