Floyd County looks to shave time off courthouse update project to avoid extra costs

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Under one timeline, the Floyd County law enforcement center and courthouse upgrade project won’t be completed until November 2021.

If it takes that long there could be additional costs that are not accounted for in the current project budget, the project managers told the county Board of Supervisors at a workshop meeting Monday morning.

Sid Samuels, president and owner of the Samuels Group, and Brett Cruze, project manager with the Samuels Group, were both at the meeting to talk about options and ways to reduce the total time spent on the project.

Samuels said the individual bid items that are part of the project are fixed in cost, but there are additional overhead expenses called general requirements where the money budgeted was based on finishing next summer.

“Our concern is if we go over that amount we’re going to have to come back and ask for additional dollars,” Samuels said. “So the goal is to get done by that date or sooner. We’re looking for ways to get out of here sooner so we can save you some dollars.”

The timeline with the November 2021 completion date is based on finishing the new law enforcement center (LEC) with a county jail and Floyd County Sheriff’s Office in December this year.

At that point the Sheriff’s Office and detainees in the county jail, both located on the fourth floor of the courthouse, would be moved into the LEC and work could begin remodeling the fourth floor.

After the fourth floor work is finished, work would progress to the third floor, the second, the first and then the ground floor, according to the timetable.

Courthouse updates include all new windows, a new heating and air conditioning system tied into the LEC, fire suppression sprinkler system, and shifting some of the county department offices to new locations to better organize common uses for people going to the courthouse.

New handicapped-accessible restrooms for each floor and two new elevators — one for the public and one to transport jail detainees — are being built in an atrium between the courthouse and the LEC.

Samuels said the goal at this point is to figure out as many things as possible that can be done in the courthouse now while work is also being done on the LEC, and to figure out work later that can be done on multiple floors simultaneously.

One of the considerations is that county business has to be conducted and people have to have access to departments while work is being done.
The supervisors have considered moving county departments to space in the 500 North Grand building, the former middle school, but have lately backed away from that idea.

The board discussed options regarding the third floor of the courthouse, since the Iowa Judicial System has canceled most court action until July 13 and will not resume jury trials until Sept. 14.

“Third floor is mostly empty right now,” said Supervisor Linda Tjaden. “What if they worked on second, first and ground and we moved people to third floor?”

Another option would be to just move the court system to 500 North Grand.

There is a cost of a couple thousand dollars per month to rent space at 500 North Grand, but Samuels said that’s “peanuts” compared with the $30,000 to $40,000 that can be saved for every month shaved off the total time on the project.

At the Board of Supervisors regular meeting on Tuesday morning, Tjaden said she and County Auditor Gloria Carr had attended a meeting Monday afternoon with contractors, subcontractors and Samuels and Cruze, and “at this point, we don’t have a plan.”

Supervisor Doug Kamm said, “My advice would be to quit chasing that and let them bring us a plan. That’s their job.”

No decisions were made at the meetings held this week.

Also Monday, the board discussed a new state law that requires county planning and zoning members and county board of adjustment members to live within the area regulated by county zoning, meaning they can’t live in cities in the county that have their own zoning.

Two members of the Zoning Commission — Susan Nelson and Vickie Zobel — and two members of the Board of Adjustment — Ann Sullivan and Dave Boehmer — don’t meet that requirement, said Auditor Carr.

Lezlie Weber, county emergency management director and zoning coordinator, said her understanding is that those members are done as of June 1 and the board of supervisors has up to a year to replace them. Each board will operate as a three-member board until the replacements are appointed.

At the regular meeting Tuesday, the board:

• Appointed Robert Mondt and April Banks to another term on the Veterans Affairs Commission.

• Approved a new county employee wellness program that reduces the amount that employees can be reimbursed for health-related expenses from $150 annually to $100 and more tightly restricts what things can be reimbursed, but that also offers the opportunity to participate in a health-related program offered through the county’s health insurer, Wellmark, called Naturally Slim.

• Set a public hearing for 9:15 a.m. June 23 regarding the county’s application for a Community Development Block Grant of $50,000 to contract with the Northeast Iowa Food Bank to expand mobile food bank operations for Charles City and other areas.