CORNELIA – The Cornelia City Commission voted to spend nearly $345,000 to repair damage caused to the downtown area by Hurricane Delta.
“One of the biggest jobs in running the city is to make sure that the infrastructure is in place for people to be able to get to and from work, to be able to run their businesses, and get to and from home as well,” said Mayor John Borrow. “So, we’ve got two main areas that were affected by Hurricane Delta, all kind of surrounding the railroad.”
City personnel were able to repair several of the affected areas, but the damage to Wells Street and Irvin Street are beyond the capabilities of city crews, said City Manager Donald Anderson.
Of the four contractors solicited to submit bids for the Hurricane Delta Emergency Repairs project, the city received bids from only one.
Wilcorp Inc., submitted a bid of $134,750 for Wells Street culvert replacement and a bid of $170,150 for replacement of the Irvin Street culvert between Irvin Street Park and the Creekside Cleaners/Brownies By Faith building.
Anderson said the other contractors (Higgins Construction Co., Dale Construction, and Lanier Contracting Co.) did not submit bid proposals due to the current abundance of work and the inability to meet the construction start date of Oct. 20.
Carter & Sloope Consulting Engineers, who provide engineering services to Cornelia, recommended the city accept the bid proposals from Wilcorp Inc, for $304,900, with Wilcorp having the ability to complete the work in 20 working days.
The repairs will come out of the Storm Water Utility Fund, which currently has a balance of $557,000.
Another storm damage-related expenditure approved Monday included the $40,000 purchase of the former Modern Gun Shop building and property from Herbert Head.
“That area was private property, and they said for us to be able to fix this area it’s going to cost us an extra $40,000 in retaining walls and added expense just to be able to get this done,” Borrow said.
The building impacted has been vacant for an extended time and is deteriorating.
“The city is going to buy it and what that’s going to do is at least get us to come out as a wash in terms of financing the repairs – and we may even come out ahead, hopefully,” Borrow said. “But by getting that and being able to do a full and proper repair job to the area on that side of the railroad tracks.”
Borrow said the store formerly was a landmark downtown business but is not in that condition now.
“I remember growing up here in the ‘80s with the gun shop being there,” Borrow said. “I don’t remember when it shut down, but it seems like it’s been empty for probably the past 20 years and I think the building has fallen into disrepair, so we as the city were excited to be able to get that piece of property. First, it’s a public safety issue with the building there, but No. 2, for us to be able to do the repairs necessary in a way that will last longer than if we had to work around the building, we think.”
