News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Progress on the new Patton House Doll Museum and Veterans facility is on hold while waiting for construction prices to fall.
The building off Highway 70 was decimated by the March 2020 tornado. Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said bids for construction came back some double and triple the amount they were expecting. He said that the architect has examined the project to look for ways to cut costs.
“What we looked at first was changing some of the ways that the building was being constructed,” Porter said. “Some material uses and different materials and so forth, we think we’ll save some money. We haven’t gotten to the point yet of having to shave off square footage, but we’ll see how it goes.”
Porter said that costs have already started a downward trend and that they hope to get the project underway within the next few months. He said that the county was able to get an extension on their $300,000 grant from FEMA for the project. The original grant was an 18-month deadline for drawing bids.
Porter said that the building will also be home to the Putnam County Archives and Veterans Museum. He said that the idea to bring them together came from a place of wanting easier access for citizens.
“That land came to the county with the stipulation that that museum would be there so we want to make sure that it’s built back,” Porter said. ” we have the FEMA funds to pay for a large percentage of that. Then you have the veteran’s officers in one location, the veteran’s museum is one location, and all of them are kind of out of room, so we felt like it’d be good to put them all together in one building to give the public better access for the public.”
Porter said the work will continue at the building’s current location. He said they will demolish the current structure and rebuild a new one.
