Star-Journbal Editor
A pleasant female voice message at National Catastrophe Restoration, Inc. (NCRI) in Wichita says, "We can turn your panic into peace of mind."
But after hearing Ron Davis, the NCRI structural estimator who inspected the fire-damaged Hillsboro Business Development Complex and wrote a bid of $440,000 for cleanup and repairs, it seems the panic at City Hall has just begun.
Hillsboro Mayor Delores Dalke sounded hopeful on Monday that another company who really wanted the work might submit a much lower bid.
But when asked if NCRI submitted a high bid because it really didn't want to tackle the project, Davis said, "No, we're in business to get [the job]; we want to get it done.
"We love our job."
Davis says his company is accustomed to tackling big jobs, but in a phone interview Monday, he also said the cleanup project at the former AMPI building was so huge, it might make more dollars and sense for the city to tear the old building down, haul the debris, and construct a new building on the concrete slab.
"Restoration work costs more per square foot than new construction does," Davis said. "When you come in on a clean slab or foundation, all you're doing is building a building."
While the mayor, city council members, USD 410 school board superintendent, school board architects, insurance agents, and restoration inspectors all have toured the damaged portion of the building, reporters have not been allowed in.
Hillsboro police sealed off the area where the fire began with yellow tape, and Police Chief Dan Kinning said because the cause of the fire is under investigation the area is still a potential crime scene.
Davis said the soot-blackened building contains, "40,000 to 50,000 55-gallon barrels of honey, so many you can't even walk in them." The honey is stored on the premises by Golden Heritage Foods, Inc., which leases space there.
The honey drums, located on the main floor, as well as junked equipment left in the basement by Associated Milk Producers, Inc., would need to be removed before any cleanup could begin, Davis said.
Davis described the cleanup procedure to building inspector Martin Rhodes, who delivered the bad news Monday during his report to the city council.
Smelly, black, plastic-based soot clings "on every surface," Davis said. "It's on the ceiling, the walls, the floors, it's everywhere. It's caked up in the basement. And some of the walls and ceilings [on the first floor] are 40 feet tall.
Every square inch of it is going to have to be cleaned," he added. "And we're talking about 100,000 square feet of floor space."
Rhodes said he thought the $440,000 bid from NCRI was what he'd expected, but he put together a bid showing how the city, with four additional full-time employees, could tackle the job in-house, for $86,608.75. The mayor was quick to dismiss the idea that the city could do the work itself.
No matter who does the work, Davis said it could take as long as six months to repair the damage.
"The wiring all has to be replaced, because it's been damaged," he said. "You'll need to replace all of the light fixtures in the area where [USD 410] wants to make a bus barn."
The cost for demolishing the building will be a lot less than cleaning it up, but won't be cheap, Davis added.
"You could get a demolition contractor in there to haul all that debris off, but I'd hate to even put a pencil to it," he said. "Off the top of my head, you could very easily be looking at $100,000 just to tear it down."
