By GLYNIS HART
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UNITY — Sullivan County officials are looking ahead five years for building renovations and infrastructure repairs. Facilities Manager Mary Bourque presented a to-do list spreading projects as far as 2024 and costing millions of dollars to the board of commissioners Monday. The Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) projects are “all suggested,” said Bourque. However, most of the projects are necessary to maintain county services.
By far the biggest project is a renovation of the Stearns/Sanders/McConnell buildings at the county complex in Unity. In New Hampshire, counties are responsible for the cost of nursing homes; around 17 percent of Sullivan county tax revenue supports the nursing home. Medicaid payments do not cover the full cost of care for the residents. A renovation to the nursing home would address deferred maintenance and expand the home’s care options.
The Sanders building adjacent to the nursing home was built in 1970 and houses government offices. The McConnell building has an open space for large meetings, but needs handicapped access.
Architects Johnathan Smith and Jonathan Halle of Warrenstreet in Concord brought preliminary designs that would bring the nursing home into ADA compliance. The number of beds would be reduced to around 146; the Stearns building, built in 1931, is currently licensed for 166 beds. In order to fit the landscape and maintain services during construction, the architects offered two plans: additional floors added to the back, or a new building in front. The estimated cost of the whole project is $25 million, which the architects said limits the options.
“Stearns has a real vertical restriction,” said Halle. “The floors are 10 feet (apart) which leaves not a lot of room for ductwork.”
Halle said the building off the front would be preferable for that reason; in the back they can stack more floors. “We’re going to renovate four floors vertically,” he said. “We’d have to drop the road to build off the front.”
Commissioner Jeff Barrette said, “I hate that option off the front – from an aesthetic point of view. It seems far more disruptive on the front.”
Halle said a facelift could make the building more appealing. “The perception in the marketplace is going to be completely different.”
One restriction in how the addition can be built is that the nursing station must have visual access to every door. New construction will have to be Americans with Disabilities Act compliant, with room around furniture for wheelchairs to get around. The new rooms would be doubles, with a curtain down the middle and one bathroom. (Currently four beds share one bathroom.) Each room must have space for a bed, bedside table, bureau, and lounge chair. “Every room is essentially the same,” said Halle.
However, no one present was sure whether the access road in the back of the building has to be preserved. Finding out the answer to that question from firefighters will be the next step in planning the renovations.
Other building projects
The fire suppression line for the county complex originates at Marshall Pond and connects to the fire pond near the complex. The line, around 10,000 feet long, is of unknown material and may be around 80 years old. To replace it would cost over $1 million, said Bourque.
The fire pond doesn’t contain enough water to handle an emergency event at the county complex, but the water line from Marshall Pond has failed in the last 15 years.
Bourque recommended assessing the need for water first. “How much would we need to suppress a major event? And is the piping correctly sized?”
“We could do a lot of well work for $100,000, to my thinking,” said Barrette. “I don’t think there’s anybody sitting at this table that’s going to spend $1 million on this.”
Bourque’s CIP asks for $15,000 to be spent in 2020 to assess the situation.
The Woodhull building in Newport, which houses some county records and county court, needs renovations, including window replacement and a rebuild of the cooling tower . The building’s heating system piping dates from an earlier boiler that was replaced with a high-efficiency on in 2012.
“We should, as a county, think about the future of this building,” said Bourque. “There are very few people working in this building but the heat is a significant cost.”
The CIP projects repair costs of $35,000 for the piping in 2023; $175,000 in 2024 to replace all the windows at Woodhull and $65,000 in 2023 for replacement windows in the records building (24 Main).
“I look at 24 Main as a liability,” said County Manager Derek Ferland. “The commissioner’s office could move to Sanders. We should get out of this building and sell it or lease it.”
The door locks at the jail are being replaced, as the old locks are no longer being manufactured and it’s become impossible to find replacement parts. The total cost of changing all the locks is $145,000, of which $90,000 was allocated this past year.
Another big project at the house of corrections is to add a medical observation unit. Superintendent of Corrections Dave Berry requested this, stating more offenders are coming in with serious health concerns, and there is more need for observation cells to hold inmates temporarily. The total project cost is estimated at $300,000. A design budget of $30,000 has already been approved for fiscal year 2019.
Finally, the sheriff’s department replaces its fleet every four years. Sheriff John Simonds said the cars turn in with about 90,000 miles on them. “We trade them in before we get to the high maintenance costs,” said Simonds.
The department is requesting six cruisers and a transport van, costing $230,000 in 2020 and another $40,000 in 2021 (for the van, which can be replaced every seven years).
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected. An earlier version stated the number of beds at the nursing home would be doubled, but actually the number will be reduced. Rooms will be more spacious after renovations.
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