Signs of rebirth evident at Waterbury state complex, nearly two years after Irene

Submitted by tim on Thu, 05/30/2013 - 01:16

by Andrew Stein May 29, 2013 vtdigger.org Governor Peter Shumlin and a crowd of legislators, journalists and federal officials huddled under loose wires and pipes in the basement of a battered Waterbury building Wednesday for the signing of a new capital spending bill.
More than 20 months earlier, the space in the Waterbury State Office Complex was filled with floodwaters from Tropical Storm Irene.
The $173 million bonding and construction bill Shumlin signed for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 contains close to $70 million in Irene-related building projects. Almost $60 million of that is for new state office buildings and projects at the Waterbury complex.
But a central part of the funding for the $125 million Waterbury replacement project still hangs in limbo: money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state’s insurance company, Lexington Insurance.
Governor Peter Shumlin, right, hands a gallon of Vermont maple syrup to Vermont FEMA coordinator Mark Landry at a ceremony Wednesday at the Waterbury State Office Complex. Photo by Andrew Stein/VTDigger
While the governor and Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding are hoping for upward of $50 million in combined reimbursements from the feds and insurance, the state’s FEMA coordinator, Mark Landry, said Wednesday there would not be funding estimates for at least six weeks. It would then be another six weeks until a final dollar determination would be submitted to the state.
‘We expect sometime in August we’ll have a final number in the amount of money we’ll be getting from the insurance company and the amount of money we’ll be getting from FEMA,’Shumlin said, after giving Landry a gallon of Vermont maple syrup for his work with the state.
FEMA was slated to provide a dollar determination for the Waterbury complex months ago. But state and federal officials decided to take advantage of a pilot program created by Hurricane Sandy assistance legislation President Barack Obama signed in January.
‘The governor, his team and the state have been extraordinarily patient when we moved that goal post, and I think for the right reasons,’Landry said.
Spaulding has defended the administration’s decision to follow FEMA down this path, as he says it will allow the state to use federal funds more liberally without being penalized. The federal guidance to implement this new program was just completed.
‘Vermont and those voluntary communities will be the first to take advantage of the legislation,’Landry said. ‘In many respects, you will be the guinea pig for the country.’

Vermont Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding, who is 6-foot-4-inches tall, reaches toward the water line left by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Irene at the Waterbury State Office Complex. Photo by Andrew Stein/VTDigger
Last week, FEMA gave the administration the official go-ahead to demolish 11 buildings at the complex, including those that previously comprised the Vermont State Hospital. The state is still waiting for the go-ahead to demolish eight other structures.
While many buildings will be destroyed, the 13 buildings that form the complex’s historic quarters will be renovated. The Department of Public Safety and forensics headquarters will continue to be used by the state, and the state is in negotiations with the town of Waterbury to sell Wasson and Stanley halls for $300,000, plus benefits like stable sewer and water rates. Those two structures contain a combined 40,000 square feet of space.
A new 86,000-square-foot building would connect to the historic quarters in the center of the complex. Roughly 1,000 employees from the Agency of Human Services will occupy the combined space. A new 20,000-square-foot biomass and back-up electricity plant will then be stationed on the south end of the complex.
‘This is the largest construction project the state has ever undertaken,’Spaulding said.
Mike Stevens, who is managing the project for the state, said the campus would be much more resistant to flooding than the current one.
‘We will be building on structural fill (processed gravel), and the lowest occupied space in (these buildings) is six inches above the 500-year flood plain,’he said. ‘Irene was about 2.5 feet above the 100-year mark and about 2.5 feet below the 500-year.’
Spaulding said Stevens was brought on board this past year to complete the project in a cost effective and timely fashion.
‘We’ll be moving into this facility at the end of 2015,’Stevens promised. ‘There’s no doubt in my mind we’ll be on time and on budget.’
The state won’t begin construction until it gets the green light from FEMA, and Stevens said the design should be completed around the end of August.