Proposed New Kingman Probation Building Remodel Delayed by Asbestos

As early as the fall of 2007, Mohave County, Arizona officials were viewing the old Negus Building in downtown Kingman as the site for future expansion of the county’s probation department.

At that time, the county’s probation department was housed in what Chief Probation Officer Friend Walker referred to as “substandard” accommodations, with a great deal of overcrowding. Many of the county’s 110 probation department employees and juvenile detention officers were being housed in a 6,000-square-foot building leased by the county in downtown Kingman, and according to reports the rent on that building was about to nearly double, from $1,530 a month to $3,000.

Walker pointed out in 2007 that the cost analysis for remodeling the Negus Building did not include costs of asbestos abatement. A rebuttal, by Procurement Manager Travis Lingenfelter, stated that the only concern with the Negus Building was friable asbestos, and that Arizona-based Pinnacle One (Pinnacle Property Inspections LLC) had determined there was no friable asbestos in the building.

On Sept. 8, 2009, in a complete reversal of that stance, county supervisors met and approved more than $76,372.25 in additional funding to Phoenix-based Summit Builders, which had been awarded the initial $1.58-million contract to remodel the inside and outside of the 20,000-square-foot Negus Building.

Although county supervisors maintain that the amended action (an increased payment of up, but not in excess of, $150,000) will not add to the total cost of the contract, because a Contract Contingency had already been inserted into the initial award, the wording “due to unforeseen conditions” indicates that no one was prepared for the need for asbestos remediation.

As a result, supervisors increased the Contract Time by seven days to allow for asbestos remediation/removal, as well as several other unplanned upgrades to the property, including lighting, a chain-link fence and remodeling a sidewalk that doesn’t currently meet the 1990 accessibility requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The new Negus Building completion date is now February of 2010.

The asbestos was found in floor tiles hidden beneath original carpeting and other, newer flooring materials. The contingency fund, originally established at $150,000, now stands at just under $73,628 – an amount supervisors have already agreed to expend to keep the Negus Building completion date at February.

During the Sept. 8 meeting, District 3 Sup. Buster Johnson asked a number of pointed questions; first, why didn’t the county know the total cost to begin with, and second, why a building project couldn’t come in under, rather than over, the projected cost.

Asbestos, if disturbed, can lead to a number of serious illnesses, including mesothelioma, a largely lethal cancer of the mesothelial lining of the lungs and abdomen. Because most remodeling projects disturb asbestos, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established laws determining how asbestos must be remediated or removed in public buildings. One is the Clean Air Act (or NESHAP, National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants); another is the Toxic Substances Control Act. For all U.S. schools, the relevant document is the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, or AHERA.

As economic considerations force more cities and municipalities to renovate rather than build new, building contractors, building managers and city and county officials involved in building departments are advised to read the above regulations carefully with an eye to preventing the sorts of cost overruns, and potential litigation, presented by friable asbestos uncovered during remodeling.

Sources:

County Web Site, Mohave Daily News, Kingman Daily Miner

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