Protecting product stored at Atlanta Bonded Warehouse, 1825 N. Theobald St., which is a county-owned building was a concern for Washington County.
A March 2018 hailstorm damaged the ABW roof, which shelters millions of dollars worth of rice.
More than a year after the storm, Mark Hooker, county engineer, reported to the Board of Supervisors the roof project was complete.
“The roof at ABW is finished and we are 35 percent complete with interior protection aspect,” Hooker said at the May 6 board meeting.
“We couldn’t allow contamination into food products, so we had interior coverage work done,” Hooker said. “The rice had to be adequately covered during construction because there was a possibility work being done on the roof could cause debris, dust and materials to fall inside and contaminate the product.
“Now we have to remove the protective coverings and make sure nothing was contaminated,” he continued. “ABW does a great job and they are responsible for a product that is stored in a county facility. So it was very important we address that.
Hooker said the county’s insurance will issue a reimbursement for the repair project after an adjuster makes a percentage determination.
Repairs to ABW were delayed last year as a result of a withdrawn bid by E. Cornell Malone.
Malone representatives, Chase Bryant, Gary Later and Ryan Malone, appeared before supervisors in November to request the bid for the project be withdrawn and explained a calculating error caused their bid to be significantly less than what the project costs.
Supervisors voted to seek the opinion of the attorney general to find if the next lowest bid from October could be used or if the project would need to go through the bidding process again.
“There is millions of dollars of rice going through that building that the county is responsible for if it becomes damaged as a result of unrepaired hail damage,” Hooker told the board in December.
After hearing an opinion from the attorney general, supervisors gave Hooker the approval to proceed with the project.
The roof was placed in 2010 at a cost of $1.47 million. Estimated costs to replace the roof today is approximately $2 million.
