Plans for rebuilding the McComb Railroad Depot museum and waiting room will be amended to satisfy both the city’s and Amtrak’s objectives, an architect told McComb officials Tuesday.
An arsonist damaged much of the depot May 30, 2021, and architect Steve Cox is designing plans for rebuilding of its interior.
Cox said the waiting room will be at the north end of the depot. He said plans initially were for the rest of the building to be used as a railroad museum.
However, Cox said Amtrak officials wanted the waiting room to include 250 square feet more than originally planned.
Cox said the 250 square feet next to the waiting will still be used for the museum as planned. But, in the future, he said, if Amtrak needs additional space, it would be able to take some of the museum space to extend its waiting room.
“That was what worked best for them. It is indeed a compromise, and I think it works fine,” Cox said. “If they’re bringing that many people through that waiting room that they need to expand it, that’s probably good for the City of McComb.”
Cox said there will be lockable doors between the waiting room and museum.
Cox said he is waiting until plans for the interior design are finalized to work with engineers about installing restrooms, air conditioning and other items.
Cox said Amtrak will have handicapped accessibility on all areas of the depot except for the front. He said the front end of the depot could be made handicapped accessible if necessary.
City Administrator David Myers said McComb has received $900,000 in insurance money to pay for the work and has spent $188,000 of that.
Alpha Center
Cox said M&P Construction Inc. of Richland is working on two projects to renovate the Alpha Center. He said the electrical work has been completed.
“The second project is mostly complete,” he said. “It’s air conditioning and the contractor is still waiting to get furnaces. He’s had an order for months.”
Cox said the project is going reasonably well.
“Now, we’re on the final project, which is renovation, window repair, painting, fixing it up, and finalizing the building,” he said.
Myers said M&P Construction submitted a $60,754 invoice, noting American Rescue Plan Act funds would be used to pay the bill. A total of $304,000 of ARPA funds were earmarked to pay M&P Construction for its work.
State Theater
McComb set aside $200,000 in ARPA funds for State Theater renovations.
Cox said the building’s two big air conditioning units need to be replaced.
“It’s been 20 years since anything was done in there and there’s a serious need for a replacement of these units, but it’s going to be a big-ticket item for the city, and so I don’t want to say a number right now because I am not sure,” he said.
Cox said there would be a Plan B if the cost estimates came back too high to replace the air conditioning units.
He did say it was possible the entire $200,000 could go toward air conditioning units.
“So they may only get the air conditioning?” Selectman Tommy McKenzie said.
“There’s two large units,” Cox replied. “This is a big job, as you can imagine, that needs to be done.”
Myers said there were several improvements needed, but air conditioning units are the top priority. He added there may be other sources of funding for the other renovations.
“Can we get a summary of ARPA money, a report showing what we have spent everywhere?” said McKenzie, adding he would like to see all invoices.
