Local construction workers haven’t been sitting down on the job, judging by the progress made on new, much-needed public restroom facilities in downtown Mount Airy.
“It’s going well,” City Manager Stan Farmer said this week of the project unfolding beside Brannock and Hiatt Furniture Co. in a municipal parking lot between that business and Old North State Winery. It started about two weeks ago.
During a meeting on June 16, the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners voted to awarded a $104,900 contract to Colt W. Simmons Construction Co., a local firm, to build the restroom facilities.
When finished, these are to be similar to ones located on the Granite City Greenway behind Roses, city Public Works Director Mitch Williams has noted, which will include two bathroom units and a brick exterior.
Along with the contract sum of $104,900, a 15-percent contingency fund was included to cover unforeseen expenses, for a total project cost of $120,000.
Farmer added Monday that the construction so far has not been hampered by inclement weather, which always looms as a factor at this time of year.
“Presumably, they are to be done by the end of September, in plenty of time for the Autumn Leaves Festival” in October, Farmer said of work crews.
The availability of public restrooms is always an issue during that event at which thousands of people flood the downtown area, with facilities at businesses generally not open to the public.
Restrooms were viewed as a particular need for the 400 block, or northern end of the central business district.
Before the latest project was pursued, the nearest public restrooms to that section were reported to be almost two blocks away at the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center.
The only other such facilities downtown are even farther away, at the southern end of the North Main Street shopping area in the Jack A. Loftis Plaza rest area where an Easter Brothers mural is located.
Funding for the new restrooms had been approved last fall through a city budget amendment totaling $295,000. It was set aside for an array of downtown projects, including the new restrooms, the updating of a master plan and others, with the group Mount Airy Downtown Inc. also committing $297,000.
The city manager acknowledged this week that some people have questioned the time lag between that approval and the construction actually getting under way this summer.
This resulted from municipal officials considering a possible alternate location for the new restrooms at a site near Trinity Episcopal Church, north of the site beside Brannock and Hiatt Furniture Co., which ultimately was abandoned.
“We took about eight weeks to work with the church at their location,” Farmer explained regarding the delay.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com