By the numbers
$1.3 million: Amount spent to complete repairs on deteriorating walkways, ceilings and stairwells at Cole Manor.
$490,000: Amount of money spent to complete the fourth phase, which will renovate the back ceilings and walkways.
152: Amount of units at the nine-story apartment complex on Burnett Road.
Unmatched coverage
The Springfield News-Sun digs into important stories about government spending, including coverage of New Carlisle’s budget cuts and costs to repair roads and bridges.
The $1.3 million project to repair deteriorating walkways, ceilings and stairwells at Cole Manor is expected to be completed this summer.
The Springfield Metropolitan Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners approved last week a $490,000 contract with Piqua-based Midwest Maintenance to renovate the back walkways and ceilings at the organization’s 152-unit high-rise apartment complex at 315 S. Burnett Road.
Part of the nine-story building has been fenced off since 2006 because of safety concerns due to problems with concrete on the exposed ceilings and walkways.
“We just want to continue to work to make this safe, affordable housing for our residents,” SMHA Executive Director Par Tolliver said. “We want them to be able to be proud of where they’re living. We know some of these things have been long overdue, so we’re going to make the corrections as we can.”
The fourth and final phase of the project will begin this week, said Cindy Hunter, housing authority director of modernization. The contractor has 240 days to complete the project, Hunter said, but hopes to be finished by late summer.
“We wanted to get it started as early in the year as we could so we have more good weather to work with,” Hunter said.
The fence around the building could come down within the next month, Hunter said, if approved by city inspectors.
“We’re hoping with the fence down and the stain on the stairwells it will make it look more pleasing, somewhere someone would want to live,” Hunter said.
The first phase of repairs to the public housing complex to repair the front walkways and ceilings was completed last year at a cost of $579,000.
“We ran into a lot of bad weather during the first phase,” Hunter said. “That’s what took so long. We were anxious to get done so we could move on to the next phase, which went really quick.”
The apartment complex’s front and back stairwells were both renovated last year at a cost of $272,000, the second and third phase of the project.
The organization is hoping to have the project completed before its next U.S. Department Housing and Urban Development REAC inspection, which could take place this fall. In 2013, the building finished with a score of 85. The apartment complex failed its inspection the previous year with a 59, one point shy of a passing grade.
SMHA has discussed enclosing the stairwells and removing the decorative concrete fins from the exterior of the building in the past, but doesn’t expect to have the funding for that any time soon, Hunter said.
Instead, the housing authority may repair the fins and stain them to match the stairwells and walkways. It’s unknown how much the project could cost, Hunter said.
“We’re still evaluating several options with what we do,” said Jonathan Schaaf, an architect with Dayton-based RDA Group, who is assisting SMHA with the project. “There may be some repair, there may be some limited replacement with another substructure and some skin or facade that dynamically changes the face of the building. We’re in the infancy stage of looking at the specifics of what we’re going to do there.”
SMHA provides 640 public housing units for more than 1,000 people throughout Springfield. The agency owns and operates five apartment complexes, including Cole Manor, Hugh Taylor Apartments, Robert C. Henry Homes, Grayhill Apartments, Sherman Court and Murray Apartments. It also owns Lincoln Park Circle, which is managed by a different organization, as well as scattered sites throughout the city.
Several other buildings need assistance first, Hunter said, including upgrades to boilers and roofs. The organization has also recently saw its capital dollars reduced by about 20 percent, Tolliver said.
In 2010, SMHA also spent $474,000 updating the building’s first floor, including a new community room, kitchen, library and restrooms.
The repairs have made it easier for people to get to their apartments, said Cole Manor resident Phillip Longworth, who lives in the back of the building where repairs have yet to be made.
“(The front of the building) looks a heck of a lot better,” said Longworth, who has lived there for four years.
Longworth didn’t have any problems with snow or concrete in the open walkways.
“They get it taken care of as soon as possible,” he said.
About the Author
