ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995 TAG: 9512130034
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
Six weeks after the roof collapsed on the under-construction health and human services building, Montgomery County lowered the boom on the Salem architectural firm that designed it.
After a 40-minute closed door session, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors gave Kinsey-Shane & Associates 30 days notice that it is fired as architect for the project.
The board didn't publicly debate the decision, which came just after midnight Monday with only one observer left after a five-hour meeting.
County Engineer Martin O'Toole said afterward the move comes as a result of the Oct. 28 collapse of wooden roof trussing over the centerpiece portion of the new Montgomery County health and human services building on Pepper Street in Christiansburg.
He said after the collapse - which was initially attributed to high winds - he started checking into other areas of the structure and had some concerns. The long-awaited building, financed by a bond referendum voters approved two years ago, will look the same visually but will have some structural changes inside, O'Toole said.
Kinsey-Shane official Francis Shane could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He declined to comment after the Montgomery board initially voted Oct. 23 to terminate the construction-management portion of the Kinsey-Shane contract.
The supervisors hired a Virginia Beach firm, The Design Collaborative, to pick up where Kinsey-Shane leaves off. The Design Collaborative already is providing architectural and engineering services for the on-going expansion of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library branch in Blacksburg.
County Engineer Martin O'Toole said the change will cause at least one month of delay in the health-building project. It was originally scheduled for a March 1996 finish, then pushed to April 3 because of wet weather in the early summer. The estimated finish is now in early May, O'Toole said. Breakell Inc. General Contractors remains the builder.
The new building will contain the Health Department and county Department of Social Services.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB