North DeKalb Senior Center to be completed this year
The partially built North DeKalb Senior Center will finally be completed after the DeKalb County Commission approved $1.6 million to finish the job.
The commission voted unanimously Tuesday to spend the additional money, and Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May said his goal is for the center in Chamblee to open in September.
In all, the county will have spent $5.4 million on a facility that was originally budgeted to cost $3.1 million.
The project encountered problems with construction, resulting in it becoming a half-built eyesore. The county fired its original contractor, Talbot Construction, in February and plans to sue to recover some of the money, May said.
May said the senior center has been stalled for too long after it was originally approved in 2012.
"We need to do it for the seniors," May said. "They deserve to have a nice facility they can enjoy. … We want to make sure we're doing right by them."
The site required additional money for remediation and site development because of unforeseen soil problems, said DeKalb Chief Operating Officer Zach Williams. The county determined the original contractor wasn’t able to complete the job.
The county hired Asurety Construction Services, which also handled the South DeKalb Senior Center, to finish the North DeKalb Senior Center project at 5238 Peachtree Road.
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
