Chardon Council Keeps Heritage Project Alive

June 20, 2013

By Ann Wishart
The faltering Heritage House heartbeat grew stronger Thursday when Chardon City Council voted 4-2 to transfer $81,000 in the treasury to be used for the project.
The transfusion gave the four council members and architect Hank Penttila hope that funds and able volunteers will materialize to get the construction on its feet.
Mayor Phil King added a positive jolt to the proceedings when he announced the pos-sibility of a $100,000 grant from the State of Ohio through the Ohio His-torical Society, thanks to Sen. John Eklund.
The bud-get has not been passed yet, but King said he is hopeful the grant will sur-vive the political process.
Council grappled with dollar signs through a two-hour debate about the cost of the entire project. The current total for construction came to $316,068.
Consultant fees added $38,600, so the figure early in the meeting was $354,600.
The transfer will not be effective for 30 days because a resolution requires a majority of five to be passed as an emergency and take effect immediately.
Council members voting in favor of the transfer were King, John Mallen, Nancy McArthur and Jim Pruce, with Dan Meleski and Deborah Reiter voting against it.
Thursday was the deadline for council to accept a $14,000 grant from Geauga County Commissioners to have the log cabin on the Heritage House site on the square demolished.
Council did not take action on the demolition, agreeing instead to ask the commissioners for a two-week exten-sion.
Once they accept the grant, they will be obliged to tear the log cabin down, an action council would rather not take until the Heritage House project is on firmer ground.
Penttila, Enzo Perfetto of Enzoco Homes and John Eltzroth, chairman of the Heritage House Committee, faced council, supporting the project through a web of questions and conflicting and confusing figures.
Perfetto, who submitted the lowest bid of $458,465, said he went back to the subcontractors he originally asked for bids and managed to get them to reduce their combined bids by $107,397, bringing the total bid to $351,065.
He also estimated the project cost can be cut by another $35,000 to $316,068 by using qualified volunteers instead of having to pay a prevailing wage to individuals the subcontractors employed.
Eltzroth said not only does the early concept include volunteer labor, the idea was for local volunteers with experience in harvesting timber to find the trees, take them down and have them milled to provide the necessary timbers for the structure.
“We still think that’s important,” he said, adding it’s a great way to reduce costs and create ownership and pride in the building.
“We know there’s more money to be saved,”?Eltzroth said.
Perfetto said when council is fully committed to building Heritage House, bids from the subcontractors may come down, although the cost of building materials have increased 50 percent in the last six months.
King said council can’t subtract the $35,000 for volunteer labor until the work has been done because, if the volunteers aren’t available, the cost for paid labor will be up to council to pay. He also expressed doubts about controlling “a ton of volunteers.”
Perfetto reassured him that his people will manage the volunteers and giving people a chance to be personally involved in the construction is the best way for Heritage House to be a com-munity project.
Included in the bid was about $15,000 for the installation of insulation and climate control equipment and materials to make the building energy efficient