Minutes 03-10-2020 Business Meeting

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27 Steve Arndt said the 33 spaces will only serve a small fraction of the Skills Center's attendees, but many students take public transportation, and ongoing access to this is important. Bonnie Hammersley said one of the things that have held up this project is parking, but Carrboro has decided not to hold up the project with its townwide parking needs. She said there was a plan for underground parking, but it was cost prohibitive. She said the plan is to build a parking deck adjacent to the building. She said Carrboro wants to replace the parking it is losing (as this is being built on an existing lost), and there is a required amount of parking spots for the library (-50) and the Skills Center (-33). She said the parking that will be built will serve this building, as opposed to being town wide parking. Commissioner Marcoplos said the building will have other uses. Bonnie Hammersley said the parking deck will be -150 spaces, and the other spaces are being paid for by the Town of Carrboro. Commissioner Bedford referred to the chart with the increase of$8.8 million, which includes the Skills Center, and said if she subtracts the increase of$2.4 million (without the Skills Center), she is left with $6.37 million. She asked if she can subtract $3.75 million, of the debt repayment, if everything goes according to plan, to get to a net of$2.62 million. She said this would be only $200,000 more than if they do not do it. Travis Myren said this is not a net number, and the $3.75 million would come in regardless. Commissioner Bedford said it could be used of other things, such as opportunity costs. She said when she voted to consider the WELL project, it was part of her thought that there would be a revenue stream that could help support the design of this building. She said she is leaning towards doing it. She said she understands there is a risk, and the $4 million might not happen, and the whole thing could implode at any time. Commissioner Greene said if the Board does not do the Skills Center, it is just kicking a problem down the road. She said to put the Skills Center there, and even if it is relocated at some point, this is a good infrastructure investment for the County, in a critical location in down town Carrboro, Commissioner Marcoplos said, in terms of transit, it is much better for public transportation than the Europa building. Commissioner McKee said he finds it interesting that this project has gone from a simple library to this bigger project. He said he understands the arguments being made, but it concerns him greatly because the costs have more than doubled. He asked staff if there is a reason that figures for furniture, etc. were not included in the original proposal. Travis Myren said there were monies ($750,000 for the library) that were programmed in the future, but not yet authorized. He said $6.79 million has been authorized, and he did not include anything that was in the future capital investment plan (CIP) at some point. Commissioner McKee said the County has a lot of construction projects going forward, and he needs total actual costs, not draft numbers. He said he is not sure that he will vote for this, as he has watched it grow and grow and grow. He said the Link building needs to be addressed; the Board heard a few weeks ago that schools need $500 million; and he is very concerned about how the County is proceeding. He said money has to come from somewhere, and he is concerned that a recession may be looming. He said he would be in favor of only proceeding with the library. He referred to a letter, and asked if that square footage is in addition to what is already proposed. Travis Myren said no, the County would not be involved in that additional space. Commissioner Price asked if the County get revenue from WELL to offset the costs of the Skills Development Center. Commissioner McKee said theoretically the County would receive money from WELL.