CROSSVILLE — At least two projects will be out for bid in hopes of taking care of leaks at the Cumberland County Justice Center.

Commissioners on the Cumberland County Building and Grounds Committee voted to bid out two repair projects and one alternate project at the Justice Center with Kim Chamberlin, architect with Upland Design, as the overseer of the projects at no additional charge to the county.

The decision was made after a lengthy debate over the projects and recommendations made by Chamberlin.

Earlier this month the committee voted to allow County Mayor Kenneth Carey Jr. and county attorney Randal Boston to work together with architects to come up with a resolution to leaking problems at the Justice Center.

Chamberlin said, "I have prepared the documents to take to Nathan (Brock's) office and have the tuckpointing and mortar done as well as the coping and breathable waterproofing applied to the building."

Tuckpointing is having concrete reapplied in between the bricks where there are gaps and holes or cracks.

Chamberlin explained that buildings are not designed now the way they used to be and there is no cavity or barrier that prevents water from going into the interior walls and surface of the old high school portion of the Justice Center.

"I think that waterproofing is the answer in addition to tuckpointing the building. That's my recommendation. If we can get this bid out before Christmas, we can get this taken care of sooner," Chamberlin said.

Chamberlin added that if those projects do not take care of the leaking, then MidState Construction and Sparkman and Associates Architects would take care of reinstalling the windows at the Justice Center.

Joe Koester, 5th District commissioner, said he thought the windows were the problem before and "now you're telling us that we will look at the windows after doing the other stuff?"

"Yes, and if there is a problem with those, Sparkman will take care of it. Honestly, I don't think that's the problem," Chamberlin said.

Carmin Lynch, 9th District commissioner said, "Is it open ended? How long are we talking about? Is there anything in writing? Are we talking 90 days, 180?"

"We're not giving a time frame, but it's not unreasonable to think it would be a year under all the different weather conditions," Chamberlin said.

He also said they would pre-qualify bidders.

"We will be very cautious on who's allowed to bid on this project," Chamberlin said.

Commissioners Lynch and Dave Hassler, 3rd District, questioned the waterproofing of the building.

"At $15,000 every three years, you're asking us to commit to spending $150,000 over the next 30 years," Hassler said. "If that building is tuckpointed correctly it won't need any waterproofing."

Commissioner Koester said he got the impression that Upland or someone else was going to take care of the expense for the coping since it was not included.

"But now you're saying that the county is going to have to pay for it all except the windows?" Koester asked.

Mayor Carey said he thought the county would be responsible for the tuckpointing and waterproofing expense, but not the coping as well.

"The windows are separate and will be taken care of if these other things don't work first. But, that was not the impression I had from the meeting," Chamberlin said.

"Now we're back to having two experts and dueling opinions. We've got one that says it's the windows and we've got one that says it's waterproofing. I don't know who to believe," Lynch said.

Chamberlin said he is also overseeing the projects at no expense to the county.

According to the report presented by engineers Cope and Associates, the leaks are being caused by "three building component failures."

The three areas are coping and parapets, improperly sealed and deteriorating joints; exterior stone and masonry, open, deteriorating and improperly sealed mortar joints, damaged stone units and/or improperly protected openings; and window openings that are missing or improperly installed flashing and waterproofing.

There are 56 windows that need to removed and reinstalled, window trim that needs to be replaced and repainted, caulked and trimmed with sheet metal. New sheet metal needs to be added for flashing and at the heads and sills of the windows, waterproofing around each opening and a water resistant barrier needs to be added.

Cope's report also states that 12,500 square feet of the concrete brick needs to be pointed on the exterior portion of the building using type "O" mortar and 52,500 linear feet of the mortar joints needs to be repaired.

Flashing and metal coping at parapet caps also need to be performed.

After much more debating, Chamberlin suggested bidding the waterproofing out as an alternate bid.

"That way you have the figure on hand. If you decide to do it you can, if not, then don't. It's my recommendation that you do the waterproofing," Chamberlin said.

Koester then made a motion to send the tuckpointing, coping projects at the Justice Center out for bid with the waterproofing bid as an alternate.

"Let's have Chamberlin proceed, get the documents to Nathan and get the numbers," Koester said.

Robert Safdie, 2nd District commissioner, supported Koester's motion.

Lynch passed on the vote at first, then agreed and it was unanimously approved.

Commissioners Harry Sabine, 1st District, and Larry Allen, 6th District, did not attend the meeting.