County OKs $233,000 more for new judicial center’s roof
By Bobby Bryant, Editor
editor@newsandpress.net
The roof for the new judicial center that Darlington County is building is going to cost about $233,000 more than planned.
County Council during its April 4 meeting approved using a “significant upgrade” to the original roofing materials because those materials weren’t going to be available until January 2023 – which would have meant delaying the project by six to eight months.
FBi Construction, the builder for the project, told the county in a letter that the original roofing materials were going to be severely delayed because of “raw material shortages and extremely long production times.”
FBi offered the county two options – delay construction of the judicial center by as long as eight months or use a different, more expensive and superior option, a “lightweight insulated concrete” with “improved durability, superior strength and increased thickness.”
The “higher-quality roof system comes with a cost,” FBi said, but the company said it’s guaranteed to be on hand by the time it’s needed, June or July.
“You can see steel going up now,” County Administrator Charles Stewart told council. “The intention is to start with the actual roof itself in July.”
“This (material) is a more durable roof,” he said. “It had to go through several phases for the engineers to confirm that the structure could handle it. … But it will cost us 233,000 additional dollars.”
In other business April 4:
— Stewart told council that several public hearings were being scheduled to discuss details of a major watershed study, to deal with flooding and drainage issues, that the county plans. One is May 10 in Darlington at St. John’s Elementary School auditorium; one is May 12 at Society Hill Neighborhood Community Center; one is May 17 at Lamar-Spaulding Elementary School; one is May 19 at Coker University in Hartsville. Times will be announced.
— Council passed a resolution honoring Frank D. Burch, former recreation director in the Hartsville area. Burch worked for the Darlington County Recreation Department 27 years and served as Hartsville area director for 25 years. The resolution says he was a pioneer in developing girls’ athletic programs in Darlington County.
Burch died in 2000. He was inducted into the South Carolina Recreation and Parks Association (SCAP) Hall of Fame in 2002 and inducted into the South Carolina Dixie Youth Baseball Hall of Fame (SCDYB) in 2022.