Council approves $1.6 million reallocation to Clark Street parking garage repairs

Warren City Council on the evening it met approved a staff recommendation to allocate $1,600,000 of previously authorized loan proceeds to rehabilitate the Clark Street parking garage.

The action follows notice in March from the Office of the Budget that the city’s requested reallocation of RCAP funds would not be approved, city staff said. With that funding unavailable, staff recommended a reduced project scope that pairs $1,300,000 in grant awards with $1,600,000 of loan proceeds to create an approximate $3,000,000 construction budget.

City staff member Holt outlined the loan history for the council: in January 2022 the council authorized a $3,600,000 loan, of which $785,000 was used to retire prior debts and roughly $2,800,000 was held for the garage project. In November 2022 the council designated $250,000 of the loan proceeds toward a boat launch project. Holt said the remaining loan funds were invested in an interest-bearing account and had grown to roughly $3.05 million as of March.

Evan Rolls, the engineer working on the garage evaluation, told the council the garage’s primary structural problems are the concrete floor slabs — ‘‘the bones of the garage, the steel frame portion, is in relatively good condition, and most of the issues are the floor slabs themselves’’ — and that a full long-life repair package previously budgeted in 2020 would have been in the roughly $9.65 million structural range (about $12 million when other components are included). Rolls said the lowered, roughly $5.2 million budget used for bid documents would only allow full-depth replacement of about half of one level; the $3 million budget under consideration would fund partial- and intermediate-depth repairs, waterproofing replacement and corrosion-control measures intended to extend service life on a shorter time horizon.

Council members pressed staff on operational impacts. Rolls said repairs will require taking portions of the garage out of service while crews work, but that staff expects to phase work and shift vehicles within the facility because the garage is currently below full capacity. City staff said there are 471 rentable spaces, 316 of which are currently rented, with additional metered and unrentable spots accounted for in the facility count.

Council discussion also addressed a ‘‘do-nothing’’ scenario. Rolls said continuing deterioration would accelerate spalling and reinforcement corrosion and could, in the long term, reduce usable capacity or cause more significant structural compromise. Staff and members noted that the city has considered alternatives — demolition and rebuild or surface-parking conversion — but that those options carry their own costs and complications.

The motion to restructure the project budget and allocate $1,600,000 in loan proceeds passed on a roll-call vote. Recorded votes show five council votes in the affirmative and one no; one council member was absent. The motion carries with staff directed to finalize a scope that aligns with the newly established budget and to return with contract documents and a construction/phasing plan.

The council also heard that two grants already awarded to the garage total $1,330,000: a DCED award of $1,000,000 (with a previously granted extension request) and an LSA grant of $350,000; staff said neither of those grants requires matching funds.