News

Lapsley: County needs plan to protect $235M worth of school buildings

Bill Lapsley.

By Bill Moss, Published: February 1, 2015

When it comes to capital spending, commissioners returned over and over to the theme of long-range planning.

"Right now if you look at capital projects particularly in the near term we don't have a lot of them that are shovel ready," Commissioner Grady Hawkins said. "In the high dollar projects, particularly in education, we're probably going to spend a good bit of time planning and prioritizing with Board of Education and the community college what those projects are and then put them in the four-year plan."
Newly elected Commissioner Bill Lapsley, sitting in his first budget work session, interrogated administrators and department heads about the details of proposals and the background of issues. Lapsley wanted to take a step back and a step back until pretty soon he seemed to be watching the Earth from space.
A civil engineer with 40 years of experience in construction, Lapsley said the Board of Commissioners is responsible for school property that he conservatively valued at $235 million.
"At least eight of the 23 core facilities are over 30 years old," he said. "The useful life a building is 50 years. Eight of those 23 have significant age and we're going to be forced to deal with those. You can't just let them sit on the side of the road and hope they'll make it to 50 years.
"If they've got major problems with heating, ventilation and air conditioning, the electrical system, roof, fire escapes — all these critical things in the use of the public building — I think we need to know about it. If we don't know about it I think we could be accused of negligence in our responsibility to the community."
Not only that, Laplsey said, but the Board of Commissioners needs a comprehensive plan based on "a clear unbiased evaluation of the economy." He recommended the county authorize a $25,000 study to look at demographics, employment categories, workforce occupations, wage analysis and education to ensure that the county's spending aligns with what employers need and the economy's direction.