Board approves $2.5 million worth of Events Center additions, flooding repairs
An additional $750,000 will be funneled into the Events Center renovation because of design problems.
It’s money Central Michigan University is seeking back from the project’s contractor. Altogether, the board of trustees on Thursday approved $1.5 million to be allocated to the new structure.
Stan Shingles, assistant vice president of University Recreation, events and conferences, said outdated building codes from the 1970s and unknown structural issues with the existing facility contributed to the design problems.
“When we started talking about blending the old with the new,” he said, “there were so many unknown factors that just popped up.”
Of the $1.5 million, $750,000 will be used to fix the “unforeseen conditions, design errors and omissions.” A total of $100,000 is for internal signage enhancement and $650,000 is for a 30-foot-by-10-foot video board and related video equipment.
David Burdette, vice president of Finance and Administrative Services, said design issues became apparent as construction progressed on the Events Center during the “ambitious design schedule.”
The list of design errors is quite long, said Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management.
“There are many of them that are very significant, very high cost to repair and correct,” he said to the board, “but absolutely necessary to complete the project.”
University reserves will finance the $750,000 needed to repair the design errors up front.
However, Lawrence said he and his team will work with the design and architectural firm to determine the financial responsibility of the repairs through a process of mediation.
“We are going to try and get every penny we can get (back),” he said.
University President George Ross said the university has undergone mediation to recover funds from design errors in the past.
He said the architectural team hired to design the Health Professions Building was required to pay back the university for several costs. The costs were associated with replacing every window in the building after a mediation process found the firm at fault.
“We have built a lot of buildings on this campus,” Ross said. “Sometimes, there are errors.”
Ross estimated it could take at least a year to get reimbursed by the insurance company.
The board also approved the allocation of additional funds for repairing damages to campus buildings after two floods this summer, including the Events Center.
The Events Center will receive $500,000 for repairs to locker rooms and a storage area that were damaged during a June 3 flood. Another $500,000 is being allocated to transfer rubberized flooring deemed biohazardous from one landfill to another.
A total of $3 million will be used to repair 39 campus buildings that were damaged during the Aug. 11 flood.
The exact allocation amount for each building was not available.
Video equipment
Future revenue from the athletics department will fund the video board and related video equipment.
Shingles said the video board and equipment was included in the original plan for the facility. However, they were omitted as time progressed and it became apparent components had to be cut to stay within budget.
Shingles said additional funding was requested because they felt the video board and equipment would be important assets to the Events Center.
“We realized that we were in a lot of ways not creating the facility that we wanted to create (without the video board and equipment),” he said.
Director of Athletics Dave Heeke said the equipment is not just for the athletics department, but will be used for concerts and graduation ceremonies as well.
“Those pieces will be used for a variety of events,” he said.
Heeke said there is a funding mechanism already in place to repay the reserve account. Repairing the flood damage and adding the new equipment will not interrupt the timeframe for completion, he said.
The $100,000 requested for internal signage enhancement will be funded through university reserves.
Heeke said the signage will be used for helping people navigate through the facility and for decoration purposes.
