County makes counter offer on Jackson Street property

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Let’s make a deal.

Back–and–forth negotiations continued between Floyd County and property owners in an effort to purchase real estate for the construction of a new law enforcement center.

The Floyd County Board of Supervisors made a counter offer concerning the purchase of property at 101 S. Jackson Street during a regular meeting on Tuesday.

The property will need to be purchased by the county to make way for a new law enforcement center to be built next to the courthouse. The property is owned by a brother and sister that live out of the area.

The county’s original offer was $47,000 for the property plus $10,000 for relocation and expenses. The property owners had until the close of business on Aug. 13 to make a decision. Possession of the property would take place on Oct. 1 in this original offer.

The property owners countered with an offer of $58,000 for the property – $12,000 for relocation and expenses for a total of $70,000 according to Assistant County Attorney Randy Tilton. Supervisors voted 2-1 to remain in open session to discuss a counter offer. This second county offer was for $65,000 – $55,000 for the property and $10,000 for additional expenses. That equals 180 percent of the fair market value. The expiration date for the offer was determined to be Aug. 20 at 9 a.m and the change of possession was moved to Oct. 15. The offer was also contingent on the right for the county to allow access for survey and hazardous materials. This offer was voted on and passed unanimously.  

There is also a property at 111 S. Jackson St. that has been appraised for $74,000. Tilton, after receiving authorization from the board on Monday, Aug. 6, prepared a bid to purchase that property for $133,000. The property is owned by Paige Cerwinske.

Each board member also approved Advanced Environmental’s bid of $6,895 bid to do the assessment for hazardous materials for the law enforcement center/courthouse project. Advanced Environmental is based out of Waterloo.

Also discussed at the meeting was the creation of a “core team” that could deal with questions arising from the construction and planning of the new law enforcement center and courthouse. The project may cost up to as much as $13.5 million. The project has a possible start date of construction around April of 2019 and could be finished in the fall of 2020.

Questions surrounding the formation of this team focused on whether or not a supervisor should be included and what constitutes needing approval from the board.

“When it’s all said and done, this project is a supervisor’s project. We have a glaring example of one that got away from us up in that courtroom. You get too many people involved in making decisions that shouldn’t. A supervisor needs to be on there for sure to make sure we stay within our budget,” said Supervisor Doug Kamm.

Board Chairperson Linda Tjaden said there was a possibility of reevaluating the “core team” after a construction manager is hired.

“We just need to have somebody there that does have that ability to make those decisions without everything coming to the board – just knowing what those things are that absolutely needs to have board approval,” Tjaden said.

Supervisor Mark Kuhn noted that he would like a better definition of the duties of the core team.

“It sounds good, but awfully broad,” said Kuhn. “I’d be interested in hearing a little more specifics about the responsibilities of the board.”

The board also approved the hire of Garrett Vanderwerf to the position of Equipment Operator II for the Secondary Road Department.