DeLand, FL - A recent vote at the DeLand City Commission meeting will now have the commission request $500,000 from the Volusia County Council.
For years the DeLand City Commission has discussed a desire to take action to alleviate the homeless in West Volusia County. In cooperation with the Neighborhood Center, Volusia County as well as local churches and businesses, they have formulated a plan to construct a new crisis housing and day services center.
The proposed facility, known as "The Bridge," will have around 6,300 square feet of conditioned space to include 30 crisis center beds, a communal dining area, showers, offices and other commodities.
However, the 6,300 square foot plan wasn't the original idea. The original plan called for 5,000 square feet but City Manager Michael Pleus said at tonight's (February 4th) meeting, it wasn't enough.
"As we began to work with our partners we realized we needed to make that bigger," said Pleus. "The feeding operation alone at First United Methodist Church was a hundred people so we realized the gathering space was inadequate and the kitchen space was inadequate."
Design of the facility began in February of 2018 and wrapped up in October of that same year, and when November came so did the bids.
However, when bidding wrapped up on December 22nd of 2018 the DeLand City Commission saw that even with their lowest bid and the cost of furniture and supplies they ended up over $1 million over their original budget of over $670,000.
At their meeting today, the city commission agreed to accept the lowest bidder (Marcon Construction of Clermont, Florida at $1,748,800), as well as add a new generator to the cost at $25,000 and implement a new change order that will result in a $95,000 cost reduction.
The generator would make the shelter more accessible during all times of the year, according to Pleus.
"We do think it's necessary, that wasn't part of the initial concept," said Pleus. "One of the things we'll be able to do with the design of this facility is use it as a cold weather shelter as well as a storm shelter. The original design didn't contemplate any one of those."
The addition of the generator, as well as the total cost of construction and furnishings, would land the city of DeLand at a price tag of $2,106,407.
However, there is currently a grant in the amount of $1.13 million available to pay for the project. The resulting variance would be $976,407.
With the increased costs the city commission then formulated a request that will go in front of the Volusia County Council.
This request, as explained by Pleus, will ask the Volusia County Council to split the difference of the variance "50/50", making both sides pay up to $500,000.
If the city were to pay $500,000 up front, they would only need the remaining $476,407 instead from the county.
Following Pleus' presentation to the commission, members voted unanimously to make the request at the county council's next meeting.
The Volusia County Council is set to meet tomorrow night. The City of DeLand's agenda shows they would need to secure the county's contribution no later than February 20th.
