Varnell City Hall may be too decrepit for continued use

By Charles Oliver
Dalton Daily Citizen

August 23, 2008 10:52 pm

— Varnell City Hall, formerly the Varnell School, has a lot of history in it, but it shows, and smells, every one of its 75 years.
The auditorium has several noticeable soft spots in the floor, water damage to the ceiling and walls, and what appears to be mold on the ceilings, walls and baseboards. The floor of the courtroom seems to have almost completely separated from the exterior wall. There’s water damage to the ceiling of the library. A huge piece of plywood covers one part of the ceiling. Mayor pro tem David Owens says that’s where a couple of pieces of Sheetrock fell. In the council chamber, there are several holes in the ceiling, along with dangling wires and duct work, as well as water damage and what appears to be mold.
And the restrooms? Police Chief Lyle Grant says his officers refuse to use them.
“They prefer to go home,” he said.
The building has a noticeable musty smell, and city officials say it has no heat, no hot water and the fire alarms don’t work.
And that’s just the visible damage. Owens said he is convinced that if they really started tearing out walls and looking into the building they’d find a lot more problems. He says he’s also concerned that the building’s field lines cross about 120 feet of private property and emerge back into a septic tank on city property.
City officials are preparing to move into temporary facilities near the city gym. The council has been meeting at the gym since February. Some council members are concerned about mold and other issues uncovered by an air quality study, but a petition signed by many area residents opposed the move.
The council hasn’t reached a decision on what to do with the old school building. They’ve asked city manager Mark Gibson to look into options for a new City Hall, including funding sources.
Council member Thomas Burnett says he’d like to see the old school building repaired and continued to be used as City Hall. Owens says he doesn’t have any definite views on what should be done with the old school building, but he says if it continues to be used as a public building the repairs should not just be “cosmetic” but should address the root problems and do everything necessary to make it habitable.
Gerald Combe, a construction manager with experience restoring historic buildings, examined the building. Combe says he volunteered his time because of his concern for the Varnell community.
He says he first looked at roof leaks, the cause of the mildew smell and the problem of water running underneath the building. He says he found the damage was mostly cosmetic and some structural and the cost of fixing it was just under $80,000. He says he was then asked to look at additional work such as floors and drywall. He says the estimated cost of all the work, including the new requests, was $158,000.
Greg Tallent, a local contractor, also looked at the building after being asked by city officials and recommended against repairing it. He says state law mandates that whenever repairs to any building equal at least 50 percent of its replacement cost it must be brought up to current building codes. He says that would be prohibitively expensive in the 75-year-old building.
“When you are talking about that, you are talking about every structural item, every electrical item, every plumbing item has to be brought up to code,” he said.
According to the Whitfield County tax assessor’s office, the assessed value of the building and the lot it sits on is $233,308 but that value may not have been updated in a few years.

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