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$300 a ride: City thinks elevator maintenance too high for its use
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · June 09, 2010
Each time someone uses the elevator at Cookson Community Center, the city pays about $100 for maintenance.
It’s not that the elevator breaks down frequently. It’s that the city pays $3,500 a year on a maintenance contract and hardly uses the elevator at all.
Parks and Recreation Director Melissa Russell reported that the elevator gets used maybe three or four times per month. The elevator company, Kone, sent the city a letter May 13 stating that it is willing to reduce the contract price by 15 percent if the city will extend the four-year contract by another five years, for a total of nine years. The current contract was signed in October 2008.
The per-month cost of the maintenance contract with Kone is $297.
“So if you use it once a month, that’s about $300 a ride,” Council member Jim Oaks said.
Russell agreed, saying the cost of maintenance is disproportionate to the use.
“I hate to pay this bill,” she said.
With the 15-percent discount, the cost will fall to about $253 per month, or about $3,000 per year.
Council member Mark Worrell noted that the state inspects the elevator only once a year. Oaks pointed out that the state inspection costs the city $120 per year.
Worrell said he felt the current use only justifies maintenance every three to six months.
The council asked what it would take to buy out the contract, or what the consequences would be if the city refused to pay.
City Attorney Bruce Goddard said he felt the company would want the balance of the roughly $14,000 contract. The council directed him to try to negotiate better terms.
Russell said she received a verbal promise that if the city ceased to use Cookson, whether by closing it or tearing it down, the elevator maintenance contract would end. Goddard said he would like to get that in writing since the city is exploring the idea of closing the building.
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