Board OKs sanitation office contract

Built in 1973, the city’s sanitation office is showing its age, Solid Waste Director Randy Atkinson said, making the contract the Hot Springs Board of Directors approved last week a welcome development.

The $332,261 contract awarded to Evans Construction Inc. will build a 1,730-square-foot wood building with stucco siding at 218 Runyon St., site of the current office and regional recycling center for Garland, Hot Spring and Clark counties. The $45,925 design contract awarded to Harris Architectural Services makes it a $378,186 project.

The city’s 2018 budget allocated $380,000 from the solid waste fund for the new building. Atkinson said construction could begin as early as next month, allowing the building to be occupied by May or June.

Atkinson said the new building will be east of the existing location and out of the Hot Springs Creek flood zone’s high-risk area. The move required a variance from the city planning commission, allowing the new location to be built within 50 feet of the railroad right of way on the property’s eastern boundary.

“We’re moving out of the flood zone,” Atkinson said. “That’s why the planning commission went along with the variance.”

He said the new building will have security features the existing location lacks. Access to the administrative area will be electronically controlled, and a bulletproof partition will separate staff from the public.

“I’m not here every day, all day,” he said. “I will feel a whole lot better knowing that they can decide who they allow to walk in.”

The new building will also be larger, making more room for the four staff members who

work full-time in the administrative area and the three to four who are at the office during staff meetings, Atkinson said. The current building is also out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, he said.

“We’re running out of space,” he said. “We’ve outgrown the building. It’s not energy efficient, and it has a flat roof.”

Seale Construction also bid on the project but quoted a $498,769 price. A metal building was initially envisioned, but the rising cost of raw materials made it cost prohibitive, Atkinson said.

“The bids came in too high,” he said of the original specifications. “We went back to the drawing board and came back with a wood structure with stucco siding. It still has the same original look the other one had. The price of steel is going up. Even the truck manufacturers are telling me that trucks, like our rear-loading trucks with compactors on the back of them, are increasing 5 to 8 percent because of steel prices.

“Everything is going up that has anything to do with steel.”

An irrigation system, landscaping, sidewalk and appliances