SOUTHPORT — Lead, asbestos, and mold must be remediated in the historic Southport courthouse before determining whether it can be occupied again. The city’s board of alderman took a step forward last week in seeing it through.
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In a unanimous vote, the board put forth $8,500 to begin the request for qualifications from contractors for a thorough environmental review and HVAC replacement.
The 170-year-old structure was last renovated in 1983 and occupied as the Brunswick County courthouse from 1854 until 1978 and then as Southport City Hall until 2014. The police department was housed there until 2016; today, it sits with plywood boarding it.
“It looks like a dump,” Mayor Rich Alt told his fellow aldermen Thursday. “I’m certainly in favor of spending money to try to keep the building from deteriorating further.”
City Manager Bonnie Therrien suggested allocating $8,500 from the administration contingency fund to start the RFQ process. This comes after Dave Smith, building consultant from HICAPS, presented early findings from an environmental assessment at the aldermen’s April 30 budget workshop.
HICAPS had an industrial hygienist go through the courthouse on East Moore Street to determine where the lead, asbestos and mold were located in the building. They did a test survey, to learn where moisture gathered and sampled surfaces, as well as air quality.
Lead was discovered in the paint on the stairwell and windows, and asbestos was determined to be “pretty well spread throughout the building,” Smith said at the budget workshop.
“Where there’s asbestos, there’s typically mold,” he added, “because it’s that porous-type, draw-in-the moisture-type material — drywall, plaster ceiling tiles, those kinds of things.”
HICAPS will oversee the bidding process to help with finding a contractor for full abatement, create an updated budget, devise a construction plan and drawings, something Smith said should be done sooner than later. He also suggested a structural review be completed.
“The building needs lots of love,” Smith told the aldermen, “but it also has lots of potential.”
Figures to restore it are estimated around the $4-million mark; roughly $700,000 is expected to cover mold and asbestos removal. Containment areas will be set up, to keep negative pressure in the space whereas contaminants are not released.
A National Historic Landmark, the two-story structure is one of the only antebellum courthouses left in the southeast and one of 17 statewide.
The use of the building has yet to be determined. Many aldermen prefer it to remain for city council purposes; however, for eight years now, an arts group has been trying to secure a public-private partnership.
It started with Up Your Arts, a collective that fosters more arts participation across all of Southport. The organization secured a memorandum of understanding years ago with the city to prepare the courthouse for potential renovation.
“To our knowledge, that’s still in effect,” Mark Bachara said on a Wednesday phone call with Port City Daily.
Bachara is a local attorney who also chairs Center for Arts of Southport. The 17-member board was formed last fall from Up Your Arts. It assembled the offshoot specifically for the courthouse renovation and particularly to help guide fundraising efforts.
“I think the aldermen going into an abatement agreement is a good first step,” Bachara said. “They know something has to be done and that’s why it’s sort of pressing on this agenda item they have for the budget coming up in June — to know the fate of this building. And I believe they intend to preserve it at least. It feels like that’s what the goal is, but I’m not sure if it includes us.”
The building is in such poor condition a mitigation plan has to be put forth, even if it were to be demolished.
The nonprofit’s inclusion was a topic of conversation at Thursday’s regular city meeting. Alderman Lowe Davis said a decision needed to be made whether to turn over the building, make it city chambers or share the space.
Alderman Robert Carroll urged the city must get out of its current meeting location, the Southport Community Center — an event space that hosts weddings and other happenings.
“We need to be back in chambers for our meetings,” he said.
Alt reminded Carroll that the courthouse would also be shared if it partnered with CAS. Plans for the building include a portion of the 8,500-square-foot space to include aldermen chambers and the rest as a performance arts space. Renderings were drawn up on what it could look like years ago, Bachara said, but nothing has been concluded upon formally.
“They’re going to have plays up there, they’re going to have music up there,” Alt said at last week’s meeting. “One way or the other, remediation of this building is not stopped, either way we go. And the city has been dragging its feet for over eight years on this.”
Alderman Karen Mosteller was hesitant to spend any money currently. Though she understood the team’s desire to push forward, she took issue with the fact the city hadn’t sat down with CAS to discuss if a partnership would happen.
“I have some consternation about this particular thing; we said we would take a meeting with them,” Mosteller said. “These are smart people. Their board is made up of talented individuals, willing to share their expertise and time, and I for one would like to hear what they say so that we can come up with either ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ in how we move forward.”
As of Wednesday, almost a week later, Bachara said it’s looking like CAS will come together with the city by the end of the month. Therrien reached out Tuesday with various date options.
Davis wasn’t a fan particularly for sharing the quarters and said the city continues to contend with complaints on how it needs more space.
“And here’s an enormous interior,” she said of the historic courthouse. “And once we get it all renovated and preserved — and because it is a historic landmark, there are many grants that we can apply for, to help get us over the hump of how much that would cost — I think that our need for space for city purposes greatly outweighs the benefits of having an art center. We have other arts places. And the arts center, at least as it was previously described, would have been one that would be in competition with art galleries and other places that sell art. And one of the things, you all have heard me say many times, is government should not compete with private business.”
One of the nonprofit’s goals is to apply for grants as well. According to Bachara, CAS already has submitted for one small grant last month; it’s to be matched and hasn’t been awarded yet.
“We’re just at the phase now where we’re identifying ones we believe we could qualify for,” he said.
However, there is a roadblock with most grant money, Bachara confirmed and Thierren acknowledged to the aldermen last week. Without an agreement in place or lease laying out how the space will be used, many grants won’t accept an application.
Therrien added the city already has been in touch with Congressman Rouzer’s office about historic preservation grants as well.
“The federal government has some grants,” she said during the budget work session. “I just don’t know if they exist any longer. … but they come with strict, strict rules, almost like you want to give the money back, especially if it’s on the National Historic Register.”
In addition to historic grants, Bachara said CAS will apply for arts grants to help with renovation as well. The group also has plans to launch a private capital needs campaign. There is seed money to start a website and its Facebook went live last week. As of now, the group is in a holding pattern until learning more about what the city wants.
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