Auditiorium work timetable set

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — The Worthington City Council voted Monday to retain SEH (Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc.) as the provider of architectural services for the addition and renovations to Memorial Auditorium Performing Arts Center.

SEH representatives presented an estimated project budget of $1,584,380 and said they would pursue an aggressive timeline for completion of the project under which a majority of the work would be completed by December 2009.

“One of the reasons we can do that is we’ve done so much of the preliminary work already,” said associate Steve Robinson, referring to design plans that had already been completed.

Mayor Alan Oberloh questioned whether the plans could be modified if necessary.

“We keep hearing that there aren’t enough bathrooms (in the plans). We’ve got to do it right,” he said.

Project Architect David Cihasky answered that those types of alterations were feasible, but said the number of bathrooms in the design matches the state-mandated minimum in the women’s room and exceeds it in the men’s.

Alderman Lyle Ten Haken raised the issue of energy efficiency, pointing out the possible economic benefit of installing a cost effective heating and cooling system.

Others still had reservations about the aggressive timeline, but Robinson said the building was sound enough to justify a speedy completion.

SEH hopes to implement any desired changes in the coming weeks to have a preliminary design completed by Dec. 18.

“We need to make decisions quickly. That’s going to be critical to be successful (on this timeline), said Robinson, expressing the need for a council contact person.

Council appointed Alderman Mike Woll to the position.

Tags: news, worthingtoncitycouncil, memorialauditorium, alanoberloh, davidcihasky, lyletenhaken, mikewoll, steverobinson