Editorial: Razing Whitfield County’s Administrative Building 2 should be left to the professionals

Published 12:01 am Monday, June 17, 2019

To tear it down, or not to tear it down?

That was the question members of the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners faced while determining the fate of their aging Administrative Building 2, which houses government offices at 214 W. King St. in downtown Dalton. The building opened in 1967 as a church. Over the years, it has accumulated a long list of structural issues. Commissioners are vacating the building, and shuffling around offices.

Commissioners have since answered yes to the question of whether to tear down the building.

Now the question is: Who is going to tear it down?

At the commissioners’ regular meeting last Monday night, they voted 3-2 to turn down a $341,000 bid from Complete Demolition Services of Carrollton to demolish the building. Commissioners Harold Brooker, Greg Jones and Barry Robbins voted to reject the bid while board Chairman Lynn Laughter and Commissioner Roger Crossen voted to accept it.

In passing on the bid, Brooker and Jones said they believe the Whitfield County Public Works Department can do the job less expensively than the private company. Robbins, who said he doesn’t believe the building should be torn down, declined to stick to his guns and said if the building is to come down he supports having public works demolish the structure to save taxpayer money.

Jones said: “I think we can save money on the contract. I think (the Whitfield County Public Works Department) can do it cheaper.”

How much money are we talking about?Jones doesn’t know. The county doesn’t have a cost estimate either.

“But I talked to (Dalton Public Works Director) Benny Dunn about what it cost the city to tear down the hotel near the interstate, and it cost them $140,000 to tear that building down,” Jones said. “And that had a lot of concrete. (Administrative Building 2) should be cheaper because it’s just a big old shell.”

(Dunn said the city spent about $150,000 to tear down the former Econo Lodge on Tampico Way. The city also paid companies $148,000 for asbestos abatement.)

Laughter was the voice of reason.

“This was a company whose job is to demolish buildings. That’s what they do,” she said. “That’s not what our public works department does. I’m concerned about liability and dealing with any environmental issues. I’m concerned about public works being taken off other things they need to do over the summer.”

(Add to this the fact the majority of commissioners, intent on letting their department do the work, wasted Complete Demolition Services’ time and money in submitting a bid. That’s not how you do business.)

We share Laughter’s concerns. Administrative Building 2 is in the heart of downtown Dalton, surrounded by the Whitfield County Courthouse, the parking deck and several businesses, including Alliant, which recently took over most of the space at the BB&T building at 201 Waugh St. There are too many variables that could wrong during the tear down.

The commissioners who want Administrative Building 2 to be torn down in-house should have asked for an estimate and presented it at last Monday night’s meeting. Then, commissioners could have discussed who should demolish the building and made an informed decision.

From mowing to milling roads to paving removing ice from our roads during inclement weather, the Whitfield County Public Works Department does an exceptional job. However, we believe this is a job best suited for the demolition professionals.

Having public works raze the building is a risk not worth taking — even if it saves the county money.