with the latest extension pushing the results to September<\/a>. Dean Strombom, co-chair of the task force, presented the findings to council during the Sept. 14 meeting.<\/p>\nAssessing the need<\/p>\n
In the final report, the task force gave recommendations for each of the city\u2019s facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the library, the group found that the facility needed the following:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Strombom added that after talking with Harris County library officials, Strombom said they recommended that the space be 14,000 square feet, a significant increase from its current layout of 5,564 square feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the community building and senior center, the task force said the facilities needed:<\/p>\n
\u00a0A more welcoming entrance<\/p>\n
Casual seating areas<\/p>\n
Social gathering space<\/p>\n
Covered outdoor space<\/p>\n
Additional kitchen and storage<\/p>\n
Classrooms and meeting spaces\u00a0<\/p>\n
What residents are saying<\/p>\n
The task force also surveyed residents about the frequency of facility usage, reasons for not visiting any facilities, library must-haves, city performance on important attributes and programs and services needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe survey revealed strong support for West University’s Library and community spaces,” Strombom said. “However, residents were deeply divided over the scale, cost and direction of future improvements. We found the clearest areas of consensus among the surveyed respondents were the need to use taxpayer funds cautiously and responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The survey showed that about half of the respondents wanted modest renovations and preservation-focused upgrades. The other half wanted larger, future-oriented, modern facilities for long-term growth and evolving needs, Strombom said.<\/p>\n
The cost<\/p>\n
The task force also evaluated a facility condition assessment by engineering experts that gave cost estimates for repairs for each facility. <\/p>\n
The assessment found that the community’s senior center required the most significant investment, with repairs for that facility estimated at $1.6 million.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Strombom said the library had a better overall condition due to prior renovations. However, the assessment found that there were still issues that included significant water intrusion and localized foundation settlement, as well as mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in need of replacement or modernization.<\/p>\n
The estimated repairs for the library are $1 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The future<\/p>\n
The overall recommendations were:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keep the library, community and senior center complex at Auden and Rice Boulevard, where it is located<\/p>\n
Renovate the library<\/p>\n
Replace the added-on section of the senior center with a two-story addition<\/p>\n
Renovate or replace the auditorium in the center<\/p>\n
Tie all three facilities together in one big center, giving it one name<\/p>\n
No action was taken on the presentation. However, City Council unanimously approved receiving the report to discuss next steps.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West University Place\u2019s Facilities Utilization Task Force presented its recommendations to City Council Sept. 14 after nine months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[151463,85681,151461,151460,56,58,57,151464,11173,10105,151462],"class_list":["post-437075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-auden","tag-community-building","tag-dean-strombom","tag-facilities-utilization-task-force","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-rice-boulevard","tag-senior-center","tag-west-university-place","tag-west-university-place-library"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}