Inspection holes have been drilled at Dover’s relatively new city hall and engineers will soon tell city officials how bad the problems are with the building’s foundation and walls.
For some time now it has been known to Dover City officials that there appear to be problems with the foundation and walls of city hall. At the last Dover City Council meeting interim city administrator Charles Parks said it was time to check out the problems with the building because right now it is “unknown’ at the extent of the damage and potential damage and it is “unknown’ how much it is going to cost to fix the problems.
Council members, at Parks’ request, authorized up to $4,000 be used to assess the damage. Seth Rye Engineering is the engineering firm for the Town of Dover, Tennessee and Rye had the “pilot holes” or inspection holes drilled to determine the situation to be dealt with.
They drilled about four or five holes on the western end of the building, at the middle and outside of the building, according to Parks.
“Now we wait for the report,” Parks said.
Parks said he expects the report at the first of next week or the end of this week.
Dover City Hall was built on a five acre tract across from what was then Westside Market. Many at the time were concerned that the city fathers and mothers were building the new city hall in a hole that could possibly be a sink hole. All assurances were given that it was a good building site.
For years now those who work in close proximity of the building have noticed cracks forming in the walls, bricks falling out of the walls and the building seems to be pulling away from the foundation.
Those who recall the building project when it was underway say that the “compaction” of the dirt that went in to fill in the large hole where city hall is built was not done properly.
“They ran over it once or twice with a farm tractor and it wasn’t even that big of a farm tractor,” one longtime Dover businessman who was opposed to the site where city hall was built. “It was about the worst site possible, but that is where they had to build it.”
Cracks have formed on the outside and the inside of the building and are spreading. City officials say that has to be stopped.
Parks has said it could cost $150,000 or more to repair the structure.
“We will know more when the engineering firm gives us the report,” Parks said.
