A year ago, Athens city officials believed a new safe room/storm shelter would be built behind SPARK Academy at Cowart Elementary School and opened before the end of this year.

Students would use the shelter during school hours and the public at any other time.

However, the shelter was never built. Bids for the shelter came in too high, and the project cannot be rebid until more money is obtained through a grant or other source.

History of city shelters

Despite deadly tornado strikes in Limestone County over the years, there were no public storm shelters built inside the Athens city limits until 2019. When the city school system opened its newly built high school off U.S. 31 in January, the facility included a safe room/storm shelter that could be used by the public after school hours.

But, public use of the facility has yet to be coordinated. Although Superintendent Trey Holladay has said he would open the shelter when there is a tornado warning, no plan has been devised for opening the shelter to the public during tornado watches. It is not the school’s responsibility to do so since the public would use the facility after school hours.

Following the April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak, which killed 238 in Alabama, including four in Limestone County, the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave Limestone County grant money to build storm shelters. However, county leaders decided not to build any of those shelters inside the city limits, despite its concentration of population.

When an EF3 tornado ripped through the Coxey community and parts of Athens on April 28, 2014, it killed two people, destroyed or damaged nearly 750 homes and downed 200 power poles. The Limestone County Emergency Management Agency and the city were once again looking at how to protect residents.

School officials applied for a $487,390 Hazard Mitigation Grant from FEMA to build a 400-person, above-ground storm shelter at Cowart for school and public use. The estimated cost was $600,000.

The engineering, design and GIS mapping for the shelter were prepared and waiting for a funding stream, Daphne Ellison, emergency management officer for Limestone EMA, said at the time.

Then, FEMA allocated through the Limestone EMA a $410,460 grant for a 442-person shelter. To get the money, the city and city school board had to pay a total of $136,821 in matching funds. The school’s portion came in the form of a $65,000 piece of land at the school. The city set aside $50,000 from the 2014 budget surplus to pay its portion of the match. As part of the city’s match, city crews were going to provide in-kind labor where possible.

With the funding in place, the city hired Lee Helms Associates to administer the project.

The Alabama Building Commission approved construction of the shelter on school property, a state requirement.

Requests for bids were sent to contractors. The winner would have 120 days to build the prefabricated building, Holly Hollman, city grant coordinator/communications specialist, said at the time.

Everything was in place.

Then the bids came in too high, putting the project on hold.

Ellison said about $301,600 more is needed to built the shelter at Cowart. EMA and the city are currently trying to obtain that money, she said.

“We are waiting to see when some PDM (Pre-Disaster Mitigation from FEMA) grant money might come in, but we have not heard about it yet,” Ellison said. “We would have to apply for that money.”