The odyssey began in October of 2003 when the Schoonover family wanted to donate the building that had held their store on main street in Argos for almost 100 years.
“The building found us, we really didn’t go out looking for the building,” said Hall. “The building had a lot of connection to the community and they wanted to give it to us. We did a feasibility study and found that it would be cheaper to renovate that structure than go out and build a new one.”
The Library Board then went about securing grants and funding to begin the project. Tom Meredith was hired as architect on the project.
“We couldn’t have found anyone better to work on the overall design,” said Hall. “The building was a historical landmark and he was able to get a design approved in about three weeks.”
As the work on the building was being done, Hall began to have some misgivings.
“It was initially cosmetic things we began to notice,” she said. “There were problems with the doors. I’m not a builder but I noticed that the drywall wasn’t being in-stalled as specified.”
The cosmetic issues, unfortunately, were only the beginning. When Hall asked a local builder to take a look at the crawlspace under the structure, he immediately suggested that the library hire an engineer. It appeared that floor joists installed to shore up the structure were not properly done, thus making the floors structurally unsound. A steel beam was also specified to be placed to help with holding up the second floor and in its stead a cement wall was installed, but footings were omitted.
“There was no way the floor could bear the load, at least a library load,” said Hall leaving her and the Library Board with a problem. “We couldn’t let the taxpayers get caught moving into a building with that many problems.”
Dozens of letters and meetings between the library, the builders and attorneys for both sides failed to bring a solution to the situation.
Add one more problem.
The town of Argos had received a Community Focus Fund grant as well as having a bond issue which only half was paid. The time limit on the grant – administered by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs – had expired and OCRA demanded that the renovation be complete by this past June 31 or the city would be liable for repayment of the $450,000 award.
“OCRA has been extremely accommodating in allowing us to have more time,” said Hall. “Once they had our documentation of our problems and that we had been diligently trying to solve them they granted us an extension to the end of the year.”
The Library Board and the town of Argos found themselves in the position of having to add another bond issue of close to $350,000 to try to finish the work. While tax rates will be affected, the determination was made that it will be cheaper to finish the project than to abandon it.
The town of Argos will be opening bids for completing the work soon.
“There is a glimmer of optimism,” said Hall. “The buil-ders that we know plan to submit bids come highly recommended. It’s a difficult job finding someone to take on this kind of project.”
Meanwhile the board will continue to seek a final settlement with the previous builders.
“We had a standard contract which means you can’t just litigate; we need to go through binding arbitration,” said Hall. “I think we need to know where we’re at money-wise first and once the bids are opened to complete the project we’ll know better.
“The board has tried diligently to bring this to a conclusion.”