County closes in on Robbins

Board one step closer to acquiring Robbins building

By Lee Bonorden (Contact) | Austin Daily Herald

Published Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Mower County Board of Commissioners has agreed to enter into a purchase agreement with Donna Robbins to acquire the Robbins Furniture and Design Gallery building.

Robbins will get the $427,000 price she sought if the agreement is finalized by each side.

Paul Sween, an Austin attorney, is handling negotiations for the county.

The commissioners’ decision at Tuesday morning’s meeting was not unanimous.

Dave Tollefson, 5th District, voted against the measure.

Tollefson and Ray Tucker, 2nd District, comprise the county board’s building committee and disagreed whether to buy the building or not.

Tucker made the motion to enter into the purchase agreement and Dick Lang, 4th District, seconded it.

Tucker, Lang, Richard P. Cummings, 1st District, and David Hillier, 5th District, all voted to acquire the property for Robbins’ purchase price. Tollefson cast the lone dissenting ballot and the motion passed 4-1.

“We’re already way over budget,” Tollefson said of the Mower County Jail and Justice Center project. “We don’t need the property for a lay down site for building materials anymore. We’ve got the Anytime Fitness Center property north of the jail, We’ve got the Austin Daily Herald property. We don’t need it for that purpose at all.”

Tollefson won election to the county board in November 2006 by promising to keep the project in downtown Austin.

Also, he promised to be a watch-dog over spending.

“My concern is that we are $5 million over budget, and we should be looking at ways we can save money on this project,” he said. “That should be our goal: To buy-down this project in any way we can.”

“If we want to show some good business sense we wouldn’t be spending money we don’t have,” he said.

Recalling the money paid for the Thoroughbred Carpet and George’s Pizza real estate, Cummings said, “It would be poor business sense not to go ahead and buy this property now.”

Hillier said, “In the long run, it may be a good decision to buy adjoining property to the courthouse.”

Tollefson said the jail and justice center project has steadily and dramatically increased in costs.

“It’s gone from $31 to $32 million and now it’s up to $36 million, and we’ve set a ceiling of $27 million that we were willing to spend on it and look where we are now,” Tollefson argued.

Robbins was present during the discussion, but left the meeting without comment after the decision was made.

The $427,000 she will receive from Mower County includes a $50,000 relocation allowance.

The county has now acquired two of three properties in the block coveted by county officials to develop a parking lot and geothermal field for the new jail and justice center.

Negotiations with Tom Sherman for a northeast corner piece of property in the block across First Street Northeast from the government center/courthouse continue, according to county coordinator Craig Oscarson.

The county has budgeted $150,000 for the demolition of the three-story, 27,000 square foot building, plus another $125,000 for the new soils needed to fill the square block (First Street by Second Avenue Northeast).

The money for the demolition and soil replacement will come from a contingency fund established for such a purpose, when the county officials began pursuing the property.

The $1.5 million came to the county in the form of a grant from the city of Austin.

While the city did not give the county the $1.5 million to acquire the property coveted by some city officials for redevelopment, county officials never announced any other purpose for the city’s grant other than to acquire the Robbins block and demolish the building and create a parking lot and geothermal field.

Also Tuesday, the county commissioners accepted a report from Omni Environmental, Inc. on the Robbins Furniture and Design Gallery building.

In approving the motion, the commissioners also authorized the firm to proceed with writing the specifications for the building’s demolishment.

The work will involve verifying any abatement, if necessary, of hazardous building materials.

The Robbins building will cost an estimated $55,000, the Thoroughbred Carpet building will cost $40,000 and another $10,000 will be needed for unspecified “other” abatement needs.

The money will come from the $1.5 million set aside for the block’s acquisition and clearing.

In addition, Omni Environmental, Inc. will be paid another $5,000 to $7,500 to write the demolition specifications.

Tucker made the motion and it was seconded by Lang.

All five commissioners voted “aye.”

Afterward

Tucker, who is chairman of the two-commissioner building committee, said after the discussion, “We’re still within our budget for the Robbins block” despite Tuesday’s new expenditures.

The county has also had tests conducted on the ground to learn whether it will be suitable for the conductivity needed for a geothermal field to heat the jail/justice center across Second Avenue Northeast from the Robbins block.

The tests, which proved inconclusive that the block would be the “best” for that purpose were followed by another test well drilled near the Austin Municipal Swimming Pool.

Both wells cost over $30,000 each.

The Rev. Marvin Repinski, a frequent critic of the project, lambasted the county for succumbing to Robbins’ “hardball” tactics on the public service project. He said they set a precedent for future land acquisition projects.

This prompted, county coordinator Craig Oscarson to point out the county does not interfere with anyone else and especially not the city of Austin at present in property acquisitions.

After voting “nay” and seeing four other commissioners vote to approve the acquisition of the Robbins property, Tollefson said he wasn’t disappointed. “No. I have to go along with the vote, but I just think we have a lot of places for money to go,” Tollefson said. “There’s no $1.5 million left to buy down the jail project.”

According to Oscarson, the seller wants to be out of the Robbins Furniture and Design Gallery building by the end of October. For over a year, the business has advertised a “jail sale” to reduce inventory.

“What I will do,” Oscarson said, “is ask Paul Sween to prepare the documents for the closing date and the Robbinses (Donna, president, and son, Michael) have to have the property cleaned out by then.”

The board chairman said the decision announced last week that Steve’s Pizza will take over the Granle Custom Framing and Art Gallery business space on North Main Street does not affect the anticipated year-end deadline for the city to clear two-blocks of downtown property for a new two-story, 128-bed jail and justice center.

That despite the Jan. 1, 2009 closing date on the Steve’s Pizza-Granle agreement.

“I wouldn’t say the deadline for having the two blocks ready is being pushed back,” he said.

“Progress is being made and we’re living with that at this time.”

Cummings will complete his four-year term Dec. 31 and end a public service career spanning 32 years as the 1st District’s representative on the county board.

He will miss the conclusion of the jail and justice center project that he has been an integral part of since it surfaced seven years ago.

“Four years ago, when I ran, I had hopes construction would be underway,” he said. “That’s not happened, but my decision to step down after this term has been made and I’m sticking to it.”