After being hit by two storms in the past year, the city-owned Dial-a-Bus building on Maple Street in East Columbus has seen better days.
Marilyn Pickett, who has been the senior transportation program’s director for the past 27 years, said only one side of the building is operational, and that side’s roof leaks.
“We get water when it rains because that roof is caved in over there when it rains. Water runs into our side of the building,” Pickett said.
The other side, Pickett said, is boarded up and empty. She said it’s been like that for years and children used to break the windows with rocks.
City CFO Jim Brigham wrote in a text message to The Dispatch on Friday that he doesn’t believe Dial-a-Bus pays rent to the city for the space due to the poor condition of the building.
The city-owned building was originally constructed in 1960, with Dial-a-Bus moving into the space in 1971. The free transportation service takes people 60-years-old and older to the doctor’s office within the city.
Over the years, Pickett said, the building housed a police substation, a radio club, and even the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District. The Dial-a-Bus program used to occupy the longer side of the L-shaped building, though eventually, the program moved to the shorter side that’s still operational.
City COO Jammie Garrett told The Dispatch Tuesday the building was also hit by a January ice storm, which caused damage to the roof. The recent May windstorm, she said, also inflicted some damage to the structure.
Besides the leaking roof, the operational side of the building is fine, Pickett said, and just in need of a few repairs.
But on May 30, city officials discussed the building during a city council work session, and repairs to the whole building were estimated to cost about $60,000.
Brigham told The Dispatch in an interview Tuesday the city has already received an insurance check for about $15,000 to repair the building, with the potential of receiving another $19,000 in recoverable depreciation once repairs to the entire building are complete.
But the city would have to chip in at least $25,000 toward the building before it hits its insurance deductible, and Brigham didn’t know if the building was worth the investment.
“I think the discussion has to be whether the building in its current state, repaired, is usable to the city, and if it is usable to the city, is it worth about $25,000 dollars of investment by the city to get it back to a repaired state,” Brigham said Tuesday.
Garrett suggested that the longer, empty side of the building could be demolished, while the other part could be refurbished.
However, Brigham said if the city does not repair the flat section and takes the longer side off of the building, it may lose part of that $19,000 recoverable depreciation from insurance.
Mayor Keith Gaskin said the council is weighing several options, including refurbishing everything, refurbishing only the Dial-a-Bus side of the building, and demolishing the entire structure.
“We’re still assessing it so we don’t know for sure what we’re going to do,” Gaskin told The Dispatch Friday. “But the other option would be to demolish it and just take the whole building out and relocate, but the final decision on that has not been made.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 44 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
