The elevator entrapments are just part of the problem. But for the first nine months of the year, people were trapped in elevators 35 times in Fulton County government buildings.
There are also fire alarms at senior centers that need to be upgraded, roof drains that need to be replaced, and some floors in the county’s government center where the heat will not come on, even when the temperature falls below freezing.
And who knows what other problems might be found?
Fulton County commissioners, cognizant of years worth of issues at their facilities, last week agreed to spend nearly half a million dollars to understand the full scale of the work that needs to be done. In the end, the process will allow them to have a laundry list of what needs to be fixed, so the county can set priorities on fixing things.
“It’s really a stem to stern look at all the systems and system components,” said Dennis King, the county’s facilities project director. “We’re going to determine the remaining useful life of the equipment, the buildings, the systems in there.”
The assessment may include a recommendation to vacate some buildings, where the cost to improve them would not be worth the expense.
King, who began his job over the summer, said one of his main objectives when he joined the county was to stop the bleeding. In years past, the 25-year-old Fulton County Government Center has suffered from rat and rodent infestations; leaks and mold shut down some areas of the building. On rainy days, there are still caution signs and cordoned-off areas in the building's atrium.
On average, King said, there were about 855 work orders at county buildings each month.
The problems come from deferring maintenance from one year to the next. The county used to spend $15 million a year to maintain its buildings, but in the past decade, it’s only spent more than $10 million twice — this year, and in 2005. One year, the spending fell to $1 million.
The assessment, which will cost $492,488 and be performed by Faithful-Gould, will go through 110 major buildings and 3.6 million square feet in two phases. The first, to be finished in February, includes county libraries, fire stations, senior and multi-purpose centers and courts. The second will be done at the end of April and will include the government center, arts centers and gymnasiums.
It was an easy sell for county leaders.
“You had me at hello, Dennis, you had me at hello,” Commissioner Marvin Arrington said during King’s presentation. Other commissioners echoed the sentiment. Commissioner Emma Darnell said she was looking forward to the day the assessments had ended and work had begun.
County commissioners already plan to spend $20 million in the 2016 budget on building improvements, but County Manager Dick Anderson said he expected the needs were more than twice that.
Last year, the commission agreed to spend an additional $1.2 million to upgrade seven elevators in the government center. That work should be finished by May.
Anderson said the focus would be first be on systems that, if they fail, could shut down a building. He said the county has been undervaluing how much morale and productivity will improve if people are no longer working in offices with tarps over their files.
“I think it’s a multi-year undertaking,” he said. “Anything that creates a public hazard, we’ve got to fix that.”
About the Author
