HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — The Public Works Committee reviewed a draft facilities assessment on Oct. 28 that inventories 18 occupied city buildings and outlines condition, work-safety concerns and high-level replacement estimates.

Staff said the draft centralizes facility information historically managed by individual departments and is intended to function like the pavement management plan to prioritize capital maintenance and replacement. The assessment ranks facilities across a set of weighted criteria; some committee members urged higher weighting for work-safety conditions.

Cost outlook: staff told the committee the police annex replacement estimate is in the neighborhood of $20 million and the main police facility replacement estimate is on the order of $30 million. Staff said those figures were derived by comparing square footage and recent police-station projects in adjacent municipalities; the annex estimate does not include potential options to repurpose or renovate existing commercial space.

Committee direction: members asked staff to refine the draft (including safety-weight adjustments), to add nonoccupied park structures to the inventory, and to present a cleaner, final version to the board with a top-three priority list and estimated total cost. The committee discussed financing options — using reserves, issuing debt, or phasing projects — but directed staff to finish the assessment before moving into detailed financing work. Several members suggested the finance committee should evaluate financing scenarios once priorities are finalized.

Why it matters: The assessment identifies long-term capital needs for public-safety facilities and other occupied buildings; replacing or renovating those structures will likely require multi-million-dollar capital planning and board-level financing decisions.

What’s next: Staff will update the weighting for safety concerns, include additional nonoccupied buildings in the index, produce a cleaned-up final draft, and present financing options for selected priority projects to the finance committee.