Activity starting on Floyd County law enforcement center site

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Things are beginning to happen on the Floyd County law enforcement center project.

On Thursday, some of the final utility relocation work began, and a couple of additional trees were taken down to get ready for the concrete removal and earthwork that will be needed to create a space for the LEC in the next couple of weeks.

Brett Cruse, project manager with The Samuels Group, the county project’s construction management company, told the county supervisors at a special meeting Thursday morning that he expects earthwork to be done to a point where they can start digging footings by Dec. 1

The goal is to get the footings poured, the precast walls set in place and the roof on the LEC so that work can continue inside regardless of weather.

Much of the discussion Thursday morning dealt with parking.

Now that crews are beginning to work on the courthouse property, on Jackson Street and on the lots that the county purchased on the other side of Jackson Street, county employees including the Sheriff’s Office will lose access to the two parking lots on the west side of the courthouse property.

County employees are being told to not park on Court Street in front of the courthouse so those spots are open to the public. The county will also ask the city for permission to park on the north side of Court Street, possibly for Sheriff’s Office vehicles.

The supervisors have known since they started talking about a new county jail that parking would be a problem during construction.

Cruse said parking will become even tighter when trucks start bringing in precast concrete panels for the walls and steel for the roof. He said some sort of staging area will be required, but it may be that semi trucks are parked somewhere away from the site and driven to the site as needed.

“I’ve been through these challenges before on tight sites and no storage,” Cruse said. “I’m really not too concerned.”

Cruse said it would probably be March or April before any of the work on the courthouse could begin.

Courthouse updates include new windows, a new heating and cooling system, fire suppression sprinklers, and some interior remodeling for office changes, especially removing the existing jail and Sheriff’s Office from the top floor.

The LEC needs to be enclosed and inside work started in there before work can begin on the courthouse, because the new jail and Sheriff’s Office building will share its heating and cooling system and some wiring with the courthouse, Cruse said.

Cruse said he is still getting figures for how much the county could save if county offices temporarily move out of the courthouse to give construction crews free access, but it’s too early to talk about that scheduling.

“So many things are impacted if you guys all move out and we have access to this whole thing,” he said. “We’re gonna knock it out fast, one floor to the next and down and we’re out and done.

“But at this point in time when we’re going over the schedule we’re not even talking about that until probably March,” he said.

The county has been exploring moving some or all courthouse offices temporarily to the 500 N. Grand building.

Whether that will happen will depend in part on whether the savings that come from contractors having complete access to the courthouse will offset the costs to relocate offices offsite.

Cruse said, “What I’m working on right now is a credit back to you guys from the subs (subcontractors) if you guys do move. Because they also understand if you guys are clear out of here and we can run through this place we’re gonna easily kill a month, two months off that schedule.”

But there are also safety concerns with staying in the building while construction goes on, and concerns with county offices being able to conduct regular business, especially the possibility of disrupting activity in the courtrooms on the third and fourth floors.

County Auditor Gloria Carr said the court system has said it will work with the county to move or reschedule activities when possible when work is expected to be noisy, but jury trials can’t be relocated and they can’t have jurors distracted from listening to the proceedings.

Chief Deputy Pat Shirley said it’s difficult to plan around jury trials, because they can be called off at any point if a plea arrangement is reached. There have been times a jury has been selected then five minutes later a plea is agreed to and the trial called off.

Also at the meeting Thursday:

• Supervisor Linda Tjaden said the groundbreaking for the project may be held Wednesday, Nov. 13, but that is not yet definite.

• Supervisors approved the first contract, with Paulson Electric, of Waterloo, for $1.087 million for general electrical work, along with change orders to change wiring that is size 4 and above from copper to aluminum, and to use a different type of ceiling fans, both changes to trim costs.