The Lisbon City Council approved paint removal and needed repairs for the exterior brick wall of the Lisbon History Center building at the March 13 meeting.
The council unanimously voted, though council member Nathan Smith was not present.
The council had tabled any action at the Feb. 27 meeting to investigate a few options.
City administrator Brandon Siggins said an assessor noted the building would remain in the 175,000 to $200,000 assessed value ballpark, even if the council were to put the roughly $100,000 into removing paint and repairing the brick. The assessor noted those improvements would definitely help the curb appeal of the building.
As the council considered putting exterior siding on the building as an option, Lisbon Historic Preservation Commission members Rebecca Hess and Ann Opatz explained what would happen if the city defaulted on the grants they received and the money was returned to the organization.
“It doesn’t bode well for our city or our organization,” Opatz said. “That money goes back to the state organization, and it’s money that gets reduced from their budget as unspent, which impacts future funding for other organizations. If we didn’t think the council would follow through on this project, we would not have written to receive grants.”
That rejection could impact future grants for the commission and city on other projects.
Mayor Doug O’Connor balked at the assertion the council didn’t want to take steps to preserve the building, but were met with unexpected costs as the first application of paint thinner only removed a portion of the lead paint.
“We had no idea how much this entire project would cost us,” O’Connor said. “I and the five other members of the council need to take care of the money for the whole town, and spending on this brick wall will impact the city’s budget. We had the intent to do this.”
Citizen LuAnn Yarborough commented that the city can’t continue pouring money into the outside of a building or allow the eyesore to remain in downtown.
“How long would we give a homeowner to allow their building to look that way before they’d be encouraged to do something?” Yarborough said.
“The city could encourage more people to make improvements to the businesses in downtown,” Opatz said. “This building is smack dab in the historical district and a contributing building to that district. Every one who will be driving from Business 30 to the new sports complex will be driving by this building for years to come.”
Council member John Bardsley said he wanted to see the council do what was needed to fix he building, including the tuckpointing and repairs to bricks.
Council member Sara Nost reiterated her frustration with the first application of lead paint removal for the building.
“This was my fear of what would happen when removing the paint,” Nost said. “We’d remove this paint and then have all these issues come forward that need to be addressed.”
Randy Williams with R and W was at the meeting with the council via zoom, and noted that the 650 to 700 bricks at the north end of the building were the only ones he sees at the moment that need to be repaired.
“Unless you strip all of the paint, you’re not going to see if there are significant brick issues,” Williams said.
He said the building overall is in very good shape, with a solid foundation, and the amount of brick needing replacement was minimal compared to other jobs he has completed.
The project had grants of $25,000, as well as left over money for library and history center repairs for this year and the allotted budget for repairs for both buildings for next year, coming close to $70,000. With that all totaled, it would leave the city roughly $15,000 to $20,000 to find in the budget.
Council member Rick Scott moved to award the project to R and W, who had the low bid of $85,090.
Lisbon approves needed repairs to brick wall
March 23, 2023
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.