Shumlin administration officials say they want to work with lawmakers to expedite plans for the flood-damaged Vermont State Hospital and the Waterbury State Office Complex during the coming legislative session.
About 50 severely mentally ill patients and 1,500 office workers were displaced when Tropical Storm Irene flooded the Waterbury complex on Aug. 28.
The state has been scrambling since to relocate state workers. Patients at the hospital have been farmed out to regional hospitals that are ill-equipped to handle patients with acute psychiatric problems.
Lawmakers and the administration will be working together during the upcoming legislative session to develop plans to replace the hospital and the 700,000-square-foot office complex.
Even if that process goes smoothly, it could be at least two years before state employees are relocated to permanent office space in Waterbury and possibly other Central Vermont communities.
Estimates for the replacement of the Vermont State Hospital are not yet available.
The Department of Buildings and General Services issued a rough set of assumptions for the state office complex that range from $64.8 million to $85.4 million, depending on the energy-efficiency level of the structures.
What the state will receive in the form of reimbursements from its private insurer and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is still unknown and will likely take months to resolve.
Meanwhile, the Shumlin administration is forging ahead as the state hospital crisis deepens and as worries about the long-term prospects for the Waterbury facility intensify.
Expeditious approval for state hospital plans?
Jeb Spaulding, secretary of the Agency of Administration, told legislators that the governor is the pursuing an aggressive schedule for a replacement facility for the state's severely mentally ill.
Spaulding told the House and Senate Institutions committees that the state is in a crisis situation and can't “take the normal process.”
The administration will ask the Legislature to approve the plans for the hospital as soon as possible in January instead of engaging in the more typical deliberative back-and-forth legislative process.
Patients, state employees, and providers at the state's regional hospitals, he said, have been badly stressed by the sudden closure of the facility on Aug. 28, and reaching consensus quickly about where to house patients is critical.
“Previous legislatures and administrations have debated what we should do about the Vermont State Hospital for many, many years,” Spaulding said. “We don't have that luxury at the moment. We all have to make a decision, and the sooner the better, on the Vermont State Hospital.”
A push to solidify an approach for new state offices
The office complex, he said, will take longer to plan, but he urged lawmakers to take much the same approach and urged them to consider approving a concept for offices by the end of the coming legislative session.
He then went on to describe the difficult circumstances under which the two largest agencies in state government - the Agency of Natural Resources and the Agency of Human Services - are operating.
Workers are commuting long distances, and department and divisions are located hither and yon, resulting in a fracturing of communication among key employees.
“There are valued employees that are quitting because they really don't want to drive from Brookfield to Winooski for the next two years,” Spaulding said. “To the extent we can come to a direction sooner rather than later, that will be working for us.”
The secretary emphasized that the administration wants to work with the Legislature to develop plans as the RFP for a feasibility study moves forward.
A group of five officials from the Department of Buildings and General Services will be vetting 10 qualifying proposals from architectural firms and coming up with three to five recommendations for lawmakers.
“We don't see this as something we're going to deal with without the Legislature's approval, and we don't want to,” Spaulding said. “The RFP process was not so we could come back and say here is our proposal. It was to come up with a selection of proposals that might make sense.”
Spaulding said the critical factors the administration is most concerned about include flood mitigation, co-location of departments and divisions, good working conditions, and energy efficiency.
The scenarios could include a mixed-use option with the state as an anchor tenant, a new facility combined with historic buildings on the Waterbury campus, or an office space in Montpelier.
A two-year completion
Larry Cassidy, the governor's special assistant who has secured temporary office space for state workers, said he thinks it will be at least two years before employees will return to the Waterbury complex.
He anticipates extending the six-month leases in disparate locations in central Vermont and Chittenden County for at least another year at a cost of about $300,000 a month.
A number of difficult problems have to be solved before workers can return to the campus, Cassidy said.
The state has to address flood mitigation on the site to avoid another catastrophe; the onsite power plant and heating systems must be elevated or moved; the sewage system remains vulnerable to flood inundation; and all the structures are vulnerable to mold spores post-Irene.
In addition, the mechanical systems and computer conduits must be moved from the ground-floor level and the extensive tunnel system that runs under the complex, according to Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, chair of the House Institutions Committee.
Several buildings in the rear of the complex that were badly compromised by the Irene flood will likely need to be razed, she said.
“A spring flood would cripple the complex,” Cassiday said. “It's risky to try to go back to Waterbury prematurely. At a minimum, we're two years out.”
Emmons wasn't surprised by the time frame.
“It's such expensive construction,” she said. “If you're going to rebuild a home, youdon't want to be living it. It's better financially and timewise to do it [the renovation at the complex[ empty.”
Sen. Bob Hartwell, D-Bennington, chair of the Senate Institutions Committee, said three to four buildings on the campus are definitely “in trouble,” including the old Brooks Building, which housed the Vermont State Hospital. These structures are candidates for demolition, he said.
Others, including the turreted structures in the front, could be renovated and “wet proofed” to mitigate future flood damage.
In addition, Hartwell said, it's crucial that the state reduce the amount of impervious surface, or paved areas, behind the building to mitigate flooding. He'd prefer to see parking beneath a new structure on the site.
Hartwell remains committed to Waterbury. “We all agree that there's going to be another flood, but that's not a reason to walk away,” he said.
Renovations and new construction could have an impact on the Capital Bill budget adjustment this year, Hartwell said. He estimated that there is $15 million to $20 million worth of line items that are subject to the adjustment, including $500,000 for a new wood chip system for the Waterbury complex that could be reconsidered, though not without pushback.
A few of the items on the list include $10 million for telecom infrastructure, $5 million for a human services computer system, $4 million for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, and $5 million for capital improvements at UVM and the state colleges.