Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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“We were bringing soldiers back from Afghanistan and Iraq to facilities that were worse here than they were in a combat zone,” said S.C. Adjutant General Bob Livingston, who leads the Guard
It would take $29.7 million to pay for overdue maintenance at the state’s almost 70 armories, including Greenwood. But the Guard does not have the money needed.
Statewide, the armories are just a small part of a much bigger problem — expensive repairs needed at colleges, office buildings and mental-health facilities. As S.C. lawmakers debate how to pay to repair the state’s crumbling roads – a unfunded repair job that carries a price tag of up to $1.5 billion a year – paying to repair deteriorating buildings looms as one of the state’s next $200 million-plus problems.
....Since being elected in 2010, Adjutant General Livingston has chipped away at the deferred maintenance needs at state armories.
The estimated cost of overdue repairs at those armories — $29.7 million — is down from $37 million in 2011, in part because of the consolidation of armories.
The state now has fewer than 70 armories. That is down from more than 100 roughly 10 years ago, Livingston said, and the plan is to cut that number to 55 over the next five to 10 years.
Part of the cost of the armory repairs could be paid by the federal government. But to get federal money there must be matching state money. However, with the state’s budget just returning to pre-recession levels and other needs — from road repairs to K-12 funding to health care — competing for state money, matching money for armories is in short supply.
The SC state budget s leaky roof video The State The State
That right there is just sad.