Supervisors to meet in new building starting next week

WASHINGTON — County Supervisors toured a freshly remodeled building at Orchard Hill on Tuesday, stepping around contractors on the site to clean, paint, and complete unfinished parts of the new meeting place.

While some county staff privately expressed doubt about the building’s completion timeline, Supervisor Marcus Fedler said it was closer than appeared to being ready, and that supervisors would start meeting there next week.

“It’s very minor stuff that they’re working their way through here and there,” said Fedler, who’s acted as the supervisors’ unofficial liaison with contractors working the project since it began in 2024. “At the end of the day, it’ll all be gone.”

Others on the site were more skeptical, with one construction worker saying he doubted supplies and staff could get to the building during an anticipated snowstorm on Wednesday.

Unchecked items on the to-do list as of Tuesday morning included window blinds and electronic door locks for closed sessions, furniture in the supervisors’ meeting room, security camera and key fob placements, and a considerable amount of files and equipment which must be relocated from current county offices to the newly remodeled building.

Amenities in the new space include a conference room and a modern-looking supervisor meeting space, with elevated desks for the supervisors at the front of the room. It also has an upgraded breakroom, and a connection to the adjacent Washington County Emergency Communications Center.

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The remodeled building will house county environmental health, mental health, Veteran’s Affairs and IT staff. The nearly-finished renovations were financed with roughly $2.5 million from the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, a sizable chunk of change sent by the federal government to local governments across the nation in an effort to speed their recovery from earlier waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While initial plans for Orchard Hill drew community concern, especially from downtown business owners who said in 2023 that the relocations of certain local government offices would pull traffic away from their storefronts. Officials eventually reached a compromise to leave more frequently visited department heads at the county courthouse closer to downtown, including those of the auditor, treasurer and recorder.

The project has remained slightly above-budget throughout its construction, but officials said it was well within contingency funds set aside for it.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com