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Washington County facility cost estimates come back high
WASHINGTON — Major Washington County building improvements proposed at Orchard Hill, the County Courthouse and County Engineer’s Office would cost just over $6 million, according to a consultant’s tentative budget update shared with the Board of Supervisors Monday.
With a low estimate coming in just below $5.4 million according to the same report, the numbers put the project well above the county’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds — a roughly $4 million reserve of federal dollars sent to the local government in the aftermath of early COVID-19 waves, which expires unless it’s “obligated“ before 2025 and spent before 2027.
County Supervisors had previously hoped that the project would come in under-budget to free up funds for other goals, like a potential new communication tower near Wellman. When the county reached a compromise deal for Orchard Hill’s renovations in June, that portion of the work was expected to cost $2.44 million, while the latest report gives a range of $3.115-$3.445 million for improvements there.
“It looks like it’s pretty substantial, so we’ll have to figure out a way to make that work,” Supervisor Marcus Fedler said at a meeting Tuesday morning. He later added in an email that the report had not yet been reviewed by the board, saying, “We’ll value engineer and tighten it up I’m sure.”
The county tentatively plans to hold a work session immediately after its regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 3, to discuss its facility plan. While that meeting was initially scheduled for Sept. 27, it was bumped back due to a scheduling conflict for the contractor.
Fedler said the county would probably give consultants and contractors “the go-ahead to proceed with something,” at Orchard Hill a week after its coming work session.
The cost estimate sent by Carl A. Nelson & Co. was careful to clarify that its estimates were tentative.
“Current market conditions (labor/material shortages, material price escalations, material/equipment lead times, etc.) make it very difficult in preparing budgets,” said the document, signed by Project Manager Ryan Harris.
A detailed breakdown of the facility improvement list in the recent budget estimate includes:
- Orchard Hill: $3,115,000 — $3,445,000, upgrading two buildings on the campus to house Public Health, Environmental Health IT, Mental health and Veterans Affairs departments.
- Courthouse basement: $558,000 — $631,000, renovating the County Attorney’s office space, and converting the existing Board of Supervisors Office into spaces for IT, Outreach, IT, GIS, and a break room.
- Courthouse second floor: $558,000-$631,000. Carl A. Nelson’s budget update said decision-makers “haven’t had a lot of discussions as to what this renovation is going to look like,” leading them to copy the basement budget as a placeholder.
- County Engineer’s Addition: $1,092,000 — $1,254,000, to build a roughly 5,500 square foot addition to the engineer’s current building, adding a garage, conference/break room, engineering work room, records storage, reception and office spaces using a “pre-engineered metal building to approximately match the existing (one.)”
- McCreedy Building: $60,000 — $75,000, to install a “a dumbwaiter or small freight elevator” to serve the building’s second floor.
Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com
