Utility relocation marks physical work on Floyd County law enforcement center project

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Driving by or strolling by the Floyd County Courthouse, there is starting to be more evidence of the new law enforcement center construction project getting underway.

Work began Monday morning moving the various utility lines that run through the property so that site work can begin on the project to build a new county jail, sheriff’s offices and some other offices next to the courthouse.

Also, South Jackson Street next to the courthouse, which the city of Charles City conveyed to the county last week for use as part of the project, has been closed to public use. That street will be torn out to make room for the law enforcement center.

A crew from Perry Novak Electric began work Monday, digging a hole near the north sidewalk to the courthouse to start the fiber optic relocation project. Wisconsin Independent Network (WIN) will come in next, followed by United Private Networks and CenturyLink.

Floyd County Supervisor Linda Tjaden gave an update on the $13.5 million voter-approved project at the supervisors’ workshop meeting Monday morning. The board also got an update via phone from Sid Samuels, the owner of The Samuels Group, the company hired as construction manager for the project.

Samuels said his company had received the documents from the project architects and designers, Prochaska & Associates, last week and was able to get the bid packages for site grading, site demolition and site utilities ready to be released Monday morning, and bid invitations were being sent out.

“We’re expecting the bids to come back in for that package on Aug. 8, and then we’ll tabulate them and have them prepared and ready for presentation and acceptance on the 12th of August, for the Board of Supervisors,” Samuels said. Site work would probably begin the third or fourth week of August.

The major bid package, that will include the actual construction of the new law enforcement center, will be delayed one more week from the most recent previous estimates.

“Prochaska last week indicated that they need an additional week for quality control and completing of their documents,” Samuels said. He said he recommended allowing that because the grading bid package would be in place for work to get started on.
“We think that the extra week is probably prudent considering where we’re at with them on the documents,” he said. “We’re looking at a release of Aug. 5th for the full set of documents; bids coming in on Aug. 29th, and then we would like to have a presentation to the Board of Supervisors on the 5th (of September), which is a Thursday, which would be a special meeting, and then acceptance so we can get the rest of the contracts out and get going on the overall project.”

Tjaden said, “I will say, when Prochaska asked for the additional week, (County Auditor) Gloria (Carr) and I did voice our concerns on the phone. Based on the delays it feels like we’ve had up to this point, we wanted to make sure Prochaska was fully aware that this was not good news. We did have that conversation.”

Samuels said, “We agree. If they said something more than the week then I think there probably would have been a lot more pushback, but I think considering the condition of the drawings the last thing we want is large addendums coming out during the bidding process … , or we find that the documents aren’t complete while we’re building the building and that will just lead to larger change orders.”

Tjaden said members of the core team continue to meet with representatives of the District Court and the Clerk of Court’s Office regarding requirements that the judicial system will have during construction, regarding construction interruptions and noise levels.

Tjaden has talked about relocating the district court offsite during construction, and also is exploring moving all the courthouse departments offsite to give construction crews full access to the courthouse for the updates planned for that building.

The 500 North Grand building has been proposed as a possible temporary relocation site.

Tjaden also said they will meet with representatives of the Iowa Department of Human Services regarding a proposal to move county offices for that department into the courthouse.

“Some of our ideas here at the courthouse may change after we have that discussion,” she said. “So we’ll see where we’re at.”

The board and Samuels also discussed the need to bid a third party for asbestos removal in the courthouse in areas that will be worked on.

Samuels said most of the asbestos work would involve pipe insulation and mastic on the tile floors, but that’s not something that the architect or the construction manager can do.

“It typically takes a third party and our general liability policy excludes asbestos removal,” he said. “We’ll help with the coordination efforts and get those people in there and get it done.”

Also at the meeting Monday, the board:

• Discussed with Gail Arjes, director of public health and home health care, about having an employee in her office trained to take over Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance duties.

Katie Sullivan would receive a $1.25 per hour pay increase and be trained through an Iowa State Association of Counties program on the requirements for that health care privacy law. The cost of the ISAC program is $1,950.

• Continued a discussion regarding concerns over ambulance coverage in Floyd County, as well as the cost of transporting bodies to the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny.

Supervisor Roy Schwickerath said he had set up a meeting with emergency medical service providers, fire department officials and city government representatives to discuss possible solutions. That meeting will take place at 6 p.m. Aug. 7 in the council chambers at the Charles City City Hall.

Auditor Carr urged that the Floyd County Ambulance Commission be involved in addressing ambulance coverage concerns, and Schwickerath later said it is possible that group could hold a meeting before the informational meeting Aug. 7.