Site work and new construction of a municipal facility in Huntersville, North Carolina. Working plans call for the construction of a municipal facility; and for site work for a municipal facility.

As of January 19, 2022 the project has been put on hold and may not resume until Summer 2022. https://www.lakenormanpublications.com/articles/huntersville-board-authorizes-next-step-toward-new-town-hall/ Authorizing a deeper exploration into logistics and finances related to a new town hall, the town board – by a 5-1 vote during its Monday meeting – approved criteria for a “design-build” approach that also allows the process of identifying a qualified contractor to begin. During a 45-minute pre-meeting discussion, and later during an agenda-item debate, board members revisited reasons for and against the project. As proposed, the work would involve construction of a three-story, approximately 35,000-square-foot building on vacant town-owned property just south of the southwest corner of the Gilead Road/N.C. 115 intersection. The site, diagonally across the intersection from current town hall, is adjacent to the Town Center building – home to Discovery Place Kids and third-floor town offices – and near the town’s parking deck. In his comments about the proposed project – repeating information shared at previous town board sessions and as recently as the board’s Dec. 21, 2020 meeting – Town Manager Anthony Roberts said a preliminary ballpark estimate for the project’s cost, assuming a design timeline that begins this spring with construction completed by spring 2023 – is around $15 million. The town hall debate dates back to board discussions in 2006 – less than a decade after the current 8,700-square-foot town hall opened – and Roberts said the issue then and now is the need for a larger facility for the town’s current, and future, staff. Roberts, Mayor John Aneralla and several commissioners also referenced the need for a larger board meeting room, citing multiple instances of standing-room-only and lobby-overflow attendance in recent years, and the value of having a larger facility available for other town events. But the idea of initiating a request for qualifications (RFQ) process for a design-build contractor to oversee the project did not have universal support. Commissioner Stacy Phillips, who in previous discussions said it was bad timing – in the midst of economic uncertainty related to the COVID-19 – to pursue a substantial municipal investment in a new town hall, added the need for more public engagement to her reasons for opposing the venture. In December, Phillips explained, the board agreed to delay a decision until after the annual planning retreat, which was scheduled for late January. The retreat was re-scheduled, and Phillips, who would ultimately cast the lone vote in opposition, urged a continued delay to allow for more discussion. However, Commissioner Melinda Bales, referencing the pre-meeting session as the type of conversation the board would have had at the retreat as well as the long-running nature of discussions about the issue, said the agreed-to plan was to revisit the item in February. Prior to the vote, in response to commissioner inquiries, Roberts confirmed that adoption of the design-build approach and the RFQ process – with a decision about selecting a contractor tentatively scheduled for May – were preliminary steps and did not represent a final board commitment to the project. Delivering an update to commissioners that, for the most part, repeated information from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) published in the Lake Norman Citizen last week, a Colonial Pipeline official confirmed a slow leak from a broken pipe resulted in the spill of approximately 1.2 million gallons of gasoline in eastern Huntersville last summer. Angie Kolar, vice president of operations services and chief risk officer for Colonial Pipeline, told commissioners nearly 740,000 gallons of the spilled gas had been recovered in an ongoing siphoning, monitoring and mediation process involving 137 different wells. And she also hinted – like has happened several times since response to the incident began – the estimated volume of the spill could change again. Kolar said the company’s efforts – monitored by the DEQ while a Comprehensive Site Assessment report on the incident is evaluated to determine the scope of future analysis, response and restoration work required – were currently capturing about 6,000 gallons a day. Kolar said the damaged section of pipe had been removed and was undergoing analysis to determine the cause of the break. And she and DEQ representatives, explaining daily monitoring procedures are ongoing, repeated findings showing no detection of petroleum product in drinking-water wells or surface water in and around the spill. In her presentation, Kolar said a pipeline right-of-way inspection flight two days before the leak was reported on Aug. 14 detected no signs of on-the-surface issues. She added a determination had been made that the break was on the bottom of the underground pipe and the apparent slow pace of the leak had not been detected by the pipeline’s internal monitoring system. She also said under normal operations, about 2 million gallons of gas passes through that section of pipeline every hour. While monitoring, product recovery and some environmental mediation efforts continue, the next step in the process – with direct DEQ involvement – will be the establishment of a Corrective Action Plan outlining the future steps Colonial will be required to take to assess and mediate leak-related impacts. No go on Blythe bid After a months-long bid and upset-bid process, commissioners rejected the highest purchase offer on the Robert Blythe building at 102 Gilead Road. HFW Huntersville submitted the last bid of $1.889 million – nearly $400,000 above the initial offer for the 8,000-square-foot building and 1.7-acre lot that started a two-party bidding war in November – but after discussions with the potential buyer about visions for the site, commissioners voted unanimously to turn down the offer. _______ Town of Huntersville is soliciting Statements of Qualifications from qualified design-build firms and/or teams ("Submitters") interested in providing professional design and construction services for a new Town Hall. The intent of this RFQ is to select a design-build team through the Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) process to provide design and construction for a new Town Hall. Deadline for submitting RFQ questions - Tuesday, March 2, 5 p.m. Project Completion - No later than July 1, 2023