Police station bargains continue

The town of Culpeper continues to realize big savings on the police station project due to the stagnant economy.

And here’s some more good news: actual work on the construction project began Monday.

As for the savings, the town expected to pay $400,000 to furnish the police station building at 740 Old Brandy Road, but the actual cost is more like $202,047, according to a report going before the Public Safety Committee today.

“I am very pleased with the furniture bid coming in way under budget,” said Councilman Chris Snider, a member of the Public Safety Committee.

Town Councilman Jim Risner, Public Safety Committee member, acknowledged another side of the significant savings.

“The bad news is it’s a sign of the economy,” he said. “While the town is benefiting, some businesses are not.”

Likewise, the town originally budgeted $3.25 million as the construction estimate to revamp the 1960s-era textile mill turned church as its new police headquarters.

But in August, Town Council awarded a low bid of $1.5 million for the job to C.L. Lewis of Lynchburg. Project manager Bob Anderson said he’d never seen anything like it, attributing the significant cost savings to the building downturn.

A crew with C.L. Lewis was already on the job Monday — the effective date of the recently signed contract — doing demolition work. Dumpsters filled with old ceiling tiles sat behind the former Providence Bible Church.

Renovations to the 20,000-square-foot facility are expected to be finished by next summer. The Culpeper Police Department currently occupies a building about one-third that size downtown on West Cameron Street.

“I’m sure the officers and staff in the PD must be very excited about getting a new home,” Snider said.

Last month, the town borrowed $5,629,000 from Martinsville-based Carter Bank & Trust to fund the entire police station project, including $275,000 for design costs through Dominion Development of Charlottesville.

Last summer, the town bought the building and 2.89-acre site from Providence Bible Church for $2.85 million. At the time, the property was appraised for $1.638 million.

Asked Monday about the difference between the purchase price and assessment, Mayor Pranas Rimeikis, who serves on the Public Safety Committee said, “appraisals and real market value rarely match.”

Snider said council weighed a number of options before making the choice to buy the building on Old Brandy Road.

“I think the location was an important factor in that decision as was the overall site and its improvements,” he said.

Risner said the consensus among council at the time was that the town needed an adequate building to house the police department. Most council members knew the selling price was high, he said, but there was also the unknown of “looking on the horizon” and not knowing what the real estate market would do.

“Council made the decision to do something,” Risner said.

Providence Bible bought the building in 2002 for $660,000 and is now building a new church near Eastern View High School.

Local engineer Chuck Stephenson, the town’s former planning director, designed the church’s new building through his private design business, Designs Unlimited, while he was still employed with the town.

His new construction business, Smart Choice Construction, for which Stephenson is partner, is also general contractor on the church project.

Earlier this month, a state regulatory board suspended Stephenson’s license for six months and fined him $5,000 for, in part, conducting his private design business out of town hall.

Stephenson resigned from his post with the town in April to further pursue his private businesses. He has maintained that there were no conflicts of interest, saying as town planning director he worked only with site issues like parking lots or sewage and drainage, and not with building permits and other building construction issues.

Want to go?
The Town Council Public Safety and Public Works Committee meets today at 4:30 p.m. in town hall, 400 S. Main St.

On the agenda: acceptance of furniture bids for new police station, revising the noise ordinance, Route 229 widening and improvements to the colonial alleyway adjacent to Knakal’s Bakery on East Davis Street.