Tuesday, June 25, 2013

County Public Works Task Force Update

June 18, 2013
For more information, contact Tom Shea at 444-7431

Task Force reviews changes to scale down Service Center

Owatonna – Citizen members of the Steele County Public Works Service Center Task Force worked Tuesday, June 18, to cut costs from the proposed new county highway building.
The community clearly rejected the scope of the 2012 proposal, members said, and the county board must present a less expensive project if it wants public support.

The task force has been meeting since January to identify a satisfying solution to current and long-term highway department facility needs. In fall 2012, the County Board tabled a vote to build a new facility on
Crane Creek Road/old Highway 14 after the project ran into criticism from business and private citizens questioning the cost and scope of the project. The county has been leasing temporary facilities since the September 2010 flood left its Hoffman Drive home uninhabitable. The Hoffman Drive was originally built in the 1930’s and has been the county’s base of highway operations for over 40 years.

Present at Tuesday’s meeting were: Margaret Michaletz, Jim Schafer, Steve Kath and Tony Louris, as well as County Engineer Anita Benson, Highway Maintenance Manager Beth Brady, Deb Brandwick from Oertel Architects and Scott Quiring of Amcon Construction Management.

They reviewed the original plans and discussed the benefits and costs of each component. To slash costs, Brandwick marked out areas for cuts: reducing size of wash bays, removing veteran services parking, shrinking office space, reducing the conference room and lobby and shrinking the maintenance bays. Also taken from the project would be two separate storage sheds. These adjustments would shed millions of dollars from the project, she said.

Some discussion ensued regarding the benefits of the original plan. Kath said the county should keep its most important amenities. “But you need to first set a budget and then make decisions. I’m not here to tell you what you need; that’s your call.”
Michaletz voiced similar opinions, noting to Brandwick and Quiring that they were not given a budget when they started. “It has to be a reasonable amount.” She also cautioned about building for future needs.  “You don’t know the future – how life can change,” she said.

Benson noted the highway department wants a “durable, long-term solution.”
She and Brady said the design components were aimed at enhancing efficiencies, by having the whole highway department under one roof, vehicles parked by supplies and under a secured roof and wash bays to extend the life of trucks and plows. But there are compromises that can be made, they said.
Schafer also said county citizens want something that will last. He recommended that the task force present two to three alternatives to the county board. “Our job was to explore options and I think we’ve done that, but the county board has to make the final call,” he said.
Brandwick and Quiring said they would present new drawings at the next meeting of the full task force, set for July 18 at 3 p.m. The full task force includes the private citizens representing each county district, as well as city and county staff and elected officials.

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