By Tony Wittkowski | City Reporter | The Times Herald
Workers are painting the interior walls of the Blue Water Convention Center and installing carpet.
“This week we started going through our punch list, walking through with a clipboard saying ‘You missed this,’ ‘Touch this up,'” Bill Kauffman, St. Clair County administrator, told county commissioners during their Thursday meeting. “We only looked at a couple of rooms this week. Even though construction will be done in a month or six weeks, that doesn’t mean we are ready to open.”
Kauffman and commissioners Jeff Bohm, Howard Heidemann and Tom Reilly had a change-order meeting — the 10th since construction started — with Orion Construction representatives. Orion is the construction manager for the project.
“I think the big thing is we had a number of local contractors on this, and they worked with our construction manager,” Heidemann said. “If they had a suggestion as to ways to improve the project, they listened.”
Kauffman said the county will collaborate with the Port Huron Museum to display artifacts at the center when it is finished.
He said maritime displays will be in the hallways because the majority of visitors are interested in the ships.
“The museum gave its revised proposal to the project team (Wednesday),” Kauffman said. “Those who are visitors within the hotel (DoubleTree by Hilton) can learn about what is coming down the river and the importance of shipping in our community.”
Commissioner Bill Gratopp praised the county for saving $261,104.77 in 2014. The savings came from consolidating the county’s elevator maintenance contracts with one vendor, re-negotiating its accounting software maintenance contract and trimming its postage machine lease. The changes were made over a five-year period, Kauffman said.
“A lot of our departments that we reorganized was to demonstrate that by making changes in the way we do business, we can reduce our costs and operate more efficiently,” Kauffman said.
Commissioners approved the county’s disbursements, a proposed insurance policy and a grant application to the Community Foundation of St. Clair County for signage along the Island Loop National Water Trail.
Lori Eschenburg, of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, said the project would put 10 signs along the Island Loop National Water Trail and along the sidewalk at the Thomas Edison Parkway.
“There are 12 locations, but they are only asking for 10,” Eschenburg said. “All the people that walk and bike will see the signs. It will educate visitors and others who live here on our history.”
Eschenburg said organizers have secured $6,000. They need $16,000.
The grant would go toward the signage and a reverse periscope that would allow the user to look into a diving helmet. Real-time underwater video would be displayed in the helmet.
“I think any city with signage is another way to accent a piece of the downtown area,” Bohm said. “People that live around here are used to it, but to others there is nothing like it in the world.”
Contact Tony Wittkowski at (810) 989-6270 or twittkowsk@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @tonywittkowski.
(Author’s Note: This article was originally published on Jan. 15, 2015)
Tony Wittkowski 