The Roanoke City Council agreed Monday to move forward with the plans for a new electrical system inside the Randolph County Historical Museum building on Main Street.
The city’s previous mayor and council hired an electrical engineer from Mills Conoly Engineering out of Montgomery to design the plans for the new wiring system inside the building, but that work was interrupted after last year’s municipal elections. Communication from outgoing council member Kesa Johnston led the engineer to pause his work, and no one from the current administration was aware of that communication until recently.
The city had already paid Mills Conoly about half of the approximate $14,000 fee for the plans, but the remainder of the fee has not been paid and the plans are not complete.
The council agreed by a unanimous vote that Mills Conoly should be paid the remainder of its fee and complete the work. It’s an important step in a ticking clock situation for the museum. The museum board has received a $70,000 grant to fund the installation of an HVAC system, but it has less than a year to use those funds before the grant expires. A new electrical system is needed in the building before that HVAC system can be installed.
Mayor Adam Melton spoke with the Mills Conoly engineer Tuesday morning and work on the electrical design is expected to resume and be completed within the next two weeks.
Once those plans are complete the city will have to go through the bid process to secure a contractor to install the newly designed electrical system.
In another museum related item from Monday’s meeting Melton revealed that neither the city nor the museum board can locate a signed copy of the lease agreement between the two parties for the museum building. The city owns the building and is leasing it to the museum board. Copies of that lease agreement have been located, but none of them have signatures on them. The council agreed to have city attorney Clay Tinney review the lease before they proceed to sign it.
