City sues original project architect

While work is being completed on the exterior renovations to the Peachtree City police headquarters, the city is having to extend the lease on its temporary facility by three months.

The work is being financed by the city, with one $800,000 15-year note taken out last year and another loan necessary this year to finish the job.

The second loan is estimated to be $697,000, but some of the final costs have not come in yet.

That puts it close to $1.5 million, just under the $1.8 million it cost to have the structure built before it opened in 2001.

The city hopes to have the second loan included in a refinancing of the original loan on the facility in order to get a better interest rate on that loan, said Finance Director Paul Salvatore.

Meanwhile the city has officially sued the original architect on the project, Don Cobb and Associates of Peachtree City, claiming a faulty design of the exterior walls and the building’s air plenum contributed to the moisture problems experienced at the building.

The suit contends that the firm falsely and negligently represented its drawings and design as being consistent with the normal standard of care when in fact they were not.

The suit was filed along with an affidavit from an architect that has reviewed the building and its design documents. In that affidavit, Ronald A. Strohm said the wall systems design were “deficient and defective” and did not include exterior flashing and weeps to “provide an easy path for moisture to exit the wall cavity.”

Also named in the suit is company principal Don Cobb, listed as an individual defendant from the company.

The suit was filed in Fayette County State Court May 22.

Monitoring wells on the site have shown that the moisture problems are most likely not due to a rising groundwater table.

The original contractor on the project, Leslie Construction of Fayetteville, has agreed in a settlement with the city to do $168,000 in work for free and will charge the city for another $177,000 in work on the project. All the new work will be supervised by the new architect on the project, the Leo A. Daly firm.

In addition to replacing the exterior of the building, which has been blamed for allowing the moisture problems on the interior, the project also involves re-grading the site to force stormwater away from the building’s perimeter.

City Manager Bernie McMullen said the hope is for the work to be finalized in the first part of December so the police department can relocate back to the building the later part of the month.

Costs are still being worked on for a few items such as the mold remediation and additional architecture fees. Also, the city has identified an additional $119,000 in items that can be financed through the loan instead of taken out of the city’s budget, including shelving, storage and a rewiring of the building’s security system, officials said this week.

City Finance Director Paul Salvatore said he hoped the city could save money on the existing portion of the original loan to build the headquarters because of the lower interest rates.

The 5.5 acre site was purchased in 1999 for $140,000 from Pathway Communities. At the time, an environmental survey of the tract showed there were no contaminants present in soil samples taken from the site.