Reno DMV building cost increases by $8M

Lawmakers were told Wednesday the cost of the new Department of Motor Vehicles building in south Reno is rising rapidly because of inflation and a booming construction market.

Ward Patrick, administrator of state Public Works, said the 2017 Legislature approved $42 million to build the facility. He said the latest estimates are it will cost a total of $50.7 million.

The reason, he said, is “unanticipated cost increases in Northern Nevada and inflation increases beyond the state Public Works estimates for this project.”

He asked the Legislative Interim Finance Committee to approve deferring $8.6 million of the items in the original plan until the 2019 Capital Improvement Projects budget and allowing them to use the money already approved to cover those rising costs this coming year.

He said that means deferring such things as landscaping until next time.

The project was approved as critically needed to replace the outdated and overwhelmed Galletti Way DMV office which is currently the only one serving the Reno-Sparks metropolitan area.

In other business, IFC:

• Approved $3.174 million to cover the remainder of overtime overruns at the Department of Corrections this fiscal year. The original estimate was that unanticipated overtime could run as high as $22 million but the department made major changes to staffing and other policies that covered most of that amount.

• Approved $131,590 to cover costs of moving the Secretary of State’s staff out of the Grant Sawyer Building in Las Vegas. Staffers have been complaining for months the building causes sickness and is making them suffer respiratory distress. Director of Administration Patrick Cates said a medical report on the building basically disagreed and found little mold there. But he said moving the Secretary of State’s 30-plus staff out of the fifth and top floor would make it easier for repairs to be made including re-roofing the building. The move allows the agency to move forward with a lease in the North Las Vegas city office building for the remainder of the biennium. By that time, Cates said, they hope to have the air and other environmental problems in the Sawyer Building fixed. But if the Secretary of State still doesn’t want the office space, he said he has several other agencies interested in the fifth floor.