Upgrading Otsego County buildings may cost $40M

Jan. 26—Otsego County officials say a newly released study assessing the state of the county's government buildings is a starting place for its capital improvement investment plan.

The building assessment study was conduced by N.K. Bhandari Architecture & Engineering, of Liverpool, New York.

According to a study overview from NKB, the scope of work included surveys of the existing building conditions — not including the county jail — to evaluate their condition, create cost estimates for repairs and prepare long-range budgets with priority ratings.

The reason that the jail was not part of the building assessment study was because there have been numerous studies on the condition of the facility already, County Administrator Steve Wilson said.

With a price tag of nearly $40 million to overhaul the buildings, county officials are proposing a six-year phased-in construction plan led by the priorities of county department heads, ensuring transparency and accurate project requests.

About $30 million in recommended spending is from high priority projects.

"Just the things that were uncovered in the building assessment survey show us that there are going to be a lot of moving pieces," county budget analyst Bob Lawton said Thursday, Jan. 25

The consultants recommended modest to major renovations in several buildings — the county office building, courthouse, annex building, the old jail that houses personnel and the district attorney's offices, the satellite offices in Oneonta, the Meadows complex and central kitchen — while several buildings in the highway department were deemed in need of either completed construction or demolition and replacement.

Based on the analysis, NKB divided the total $38.9 million in recommended costs into high, medium and low priority costs, which may not match what county staff or the Board of Representatives deems a priority.

"I think before we have a major breakdown, where we have to shut buildings down, those would be some priorities that should come to the top," board chairperson Edwin Frazier Jr. said. "But that's my personal opinion, there are 13 others on the board."

Capital plan

The building assessment study is one piece of the county's capital investment plan, which includes looking at improving all capital assets — buildings, roads, bridges, equipment, vehicles, IT systems.

Discussions about a new correctional facility are part of the capital investment plan.

County officials plan to present a six-year capital budget plan to the Board or Representatives by August to inform 2025 budget planning, factoring in cost and funding assumptions to ensure feasibility.

"We're not trying to do an operating budget at the same time we're doing the capital budget," Lawton said. "Once they adopted we can then take our cost assumptions and our funding assumptions, factor them into the budget, which ultimately the board will adopt in November, for the following year.

The idea is to budget for the first year and then develop a sense of what the next five years will look like.

"We need to do it kind of out of sync with the budget process," Lawton said, "in order to ensure we get good revenue forecasting, good expenditure forecasting. Everything has to be within our ability to pay for it."

Residents may wonder about tax increases as city considers the phased-in spending plan.

Lawton said that the county plans to use a combination of the general fund, fees charged to other governments, grants, lease purchase agreements and, if necessary, longer or shorter term debt.

Wilson said that it's too early to really decide on spending priorities.

"It's too complicated for that," he said. "You've got to go bit by bit, building information that will affect later on, and that's why we put in place this process. This will allow us to do that."

The building assessment study concluded that the buildings in the county highway department need the most work.

In addition to the Cooperstown campus, the highway department maintains patrols stations in Burlington, Garrattsville, Gilbertsville, Maryland and Monticello, a hamlet in the town of Richfield.

County Highway Department Superintendent Richard Brimmer said Thursday that the consultants' assessment and recommendations were fair.

"I guess there weren't any surprises," he said. "We know we've got a lot of buildings in need."

While some buildings are likely going to be tear-downs, some could be rehabbed, such as the salt and salt sheds, he said.

He said a good place to start on the highway buildings would be the 21,000-square-foot automotive shop, which is the oldest building in the department, built in 1920.