New lobby doors will soon be installed at the Claude Parish Memorial Arena.
The District of Houston council at its March 3 meeting authorized staffers to solicit bids for the purchase and installation, a cost projected to be up to $25,000.
The current doors were installed more than 10 years ago and are no longer repairable, said leisure services director Tasha Kelly in a Feb. 18 briefing note prepared for council.
There are four lobby doors in all and only one now works, and that’s become a source of frustration for arena users, she said.
Council had been asked to authorize the replacement at its Feb. 18 meeting but held back to ask for more information, said District of Houston mayor Shane Brienen.
“There was no problem. Council just had a couple of questions about the condition of the [current] doors,” he said.
One item clarified was that the new doors will also have an automatic opener for the use of people with physical limitations.
“Staff have been using the services of the local glass shop to repair the front door for numerous years. The ground beneath the doors fluctuates throughout the year as the weather changes,” Kelly noted in her Feb. 18 briefing note.
“As the ground height fluctuates, the doors continuously move, putting pressure on the frame.”
“In 2018, one door was no longer unlockable …. and in 2019 two other doors became inoperable: not capable to unlock and broken panic hardware. Currently, there is only one fully operational door: the remaining three are exit-only and there is no handicap access to the facility,” Kelly continued in citing the need for replacement.
Staffers did get two quotes for the replacement but will now formally put the project out to tender.
“The current doors will not last until the end of 2020 to go through the next round of budget deliberations,” Kelly said.
Because of the projected cost, the replacement will be financed from capital funds and not fall under the arena’s operational budget.
As such, council authorized the monies to come from the arena capital reserve account which now stands at $534,748.37.
Of the two replacement quotes received earlier, staff had recommended using Northern Glass Ltd. whose quote was $17,400.15.