VIRGINIA BEACH
Despite calls to tear down the government building where a mass shooting took place in May, the city is laying the groundwork to begin remodeling it.
Between February and April, the city plans to gut the interior walls on the first, second and third floors of Building 2, the site where a city engineer shot and killed 12 people and injured four others at the city’s Municipal Center on May 31.
The ceilings, fire alarm system, and lighting, heating and air conditioning systems will be preserved, but the walls will come down.
Tom Nicholas, the city’s Public Works facilities engineer, said he estimates the work will cost less than $1 million. On Tuesday, the council will consider a proposal to allocate $800,000 for the work.
City Manager Dave Hansen favors renovating the building and turning it into the new police headquarters. He has urged the council to avoid tearing down the building because the shell, electrical system and heating and air systems are worth an estimated $20 million.
“We need to be very cognizant of the public’s purse,” Hansen said during a recent council meeting. “We think we can emotionally and psychologically restore confidence in that facility by doing this process.”
Mayor Bobby Dyer, Vice Mayor Jim Wood and council members Louis Jones, Barbara Henley, Rosemary Wilson, John Moss, Michael Berlucchi and Guy Tower agreed that they don’t want to demolish the building because of the cost. Council members Sabrina Wooten, Jessica Abbott and Aaron Rouse could not be reached for comment.
“It never made any sense to me to tear the building down,” Tower said. “I think that would be a catastrophic mistake in terms of the budget.”
In July, the council gave $4 million to cover the cost to redesign building 2, as well as City Hall and police headquarters. But the council will have to decide next spring whether to set aside money for the actual construction.
If all goes to the city manager’s plan, by late April, the city will ask for proposals to design and rebuild the damaged building for the 1st Police Precinct and the departments’ administrators.
Nicholas has begun meeting with police to figure out what the department needs in the building and how the space should be configured. Before the shooting, the 95,000-square-foot building was already in the process of being remodeled.
Since the shooting, city workers have been relocated to temporary work stations across the city. Many are sitting around conference tables with their colleagues. Hansen’s team has been working to reunify departments in offices that the city will rent for several years until the renovations on the Municipal Center Campus are completed. The council will also vote on Tuesday to outfit new temporary offices for Public Works and Public Utilities workers.
Dyer said there’s no playbook for how to handle the situation, but he thinks the city needs to move forward with renovating Building 2.
He acknowledged that the council has not asked the victims’ families for their input. Four families who lost loved ones during the tragedy have told The Virginian-Pilot that they want the building torn down. About 40% of respondents to an online city poll agreed.
Debbie Borato, the sister of Missy Langer, who worked for the city and died on May 31, is frustrated that the City Council didn’t reach out to the families.
“They don’t care what we think,” Borato said. “That’s a shame.”
Dyer said he fears tearing down the building could encourage others to carry out similar attacks.
“I don’t think we should succumb to evil,” Dyer said. “I think we need to show we are ‘VB Strong’ and not give in to that. The quicker we get it renovated, people will feel better about the situation.”
Barbara Henley said she is considering how people feel about the building, but she thinks that anyone walking past the site will always be reminded of the tragedy.
“Even if we were to tear it down, it is always the place where it happened,” Henley said. “Whatever is there, even if it is just grass, it is still where that horrible event occurred.”
Wilson hopes residents will feel differently about the building after it is remodeled.
“I understand there is a lot of angst over seeing that building,” Wilson said. “I would like to think we change the building enough that it won’t be like the same building.”
Jason Nixon, husband of Kate Nixon, a shooting victim, said he feels like the council isn’t listening.
“You have to have some human compassion,” Nixon said. “I don’t care what it costs to tear it down.”
?Alissa Skelton, 757-222-5155, alissa.skelton@pilotonline.com
