SALISBURY — The Rowan County Board of Commissioners voted Monday to allow the county manager to enter into a contract with ADW Architects, the company handling the West End Plaza renovations, for $1,279,562. This contract would allow the county to move forward with moving the Rowan County Health Department into the old Salisbury Mall.

ADW’s fee equals 6.75 percent of the total cost of the renovations which is $19,635,000. County Manager Aaron Church said that the percentage fee was fairly standard for projects of this nature. Church also noted that the total cost of the project was still an estimate, as the county has to wait for bids to come in and one to be chosen before finalizing the cost.

The total estimate is broken down into five different categories, a base project and then three additional alternates that the county can choose whether or not to add on. The base project would include all of the interior work and basic exterior alterations and is estimated at a cost of $14,572,000. Alternate one would include exterior alterations to the facade of the health department space and is estimated to cost $1,275,000. Alternate two would include exterior alterations past the health department space and is estimated to cost $1,581,000. Alternate three would include alterations to the parking lot outside the health department space and is estimated to cost $2,106,000. Alternate four would include alterations to the driveway and parking lot east of and behind the space and is estimated to cost $101,000.

Before approving the contract, the commissioners took some time to clarify again where the money was coming from to fund this project. Church said that the county is currently sitting on $11,675,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding that needs to be committed to a project by the end of 2024. The county also has $5.1 million in Medicaid reimbursements, which the state requires to be spent on the same programs that generated the funding. In total, Church said the county has $16,824,000 in funding that can be put into this project without touching any local taxes.

“If the ARPA funds are not allocated by the end of 2024 we have to give the funds back. So we can either have a new health department that doesn’t cost us anything, or we can give the federal government the money back. That’s the reason we’re pushing this forward. I’ve been on this board for years, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen an opportunity to have money from somebody besides my taxpayers pay for something,” said Commissioner Craig Pierce.

Church noted that the health department was chosen as the project because it is guaranteed to be compliant with all the federal and state regulations regarding the spending of that money.

“I’ve never seen a project like this. Normally this is something that we would have to finance, and I think as long as these cost estimates are fair and close to what comes in, we’ll be able to pay probably in cash, entirely,” said Church.

No estimated time of completion has been established for the project yet, but Church did note that the ARPA regulations require the project to be started by the end of 2026.