Task Force recommends building on purchased land

The Steele County Public Works Service Center Task Force is recommending that Steele
County build a new highway department facility on its purchased land on old Highway 14.
However, the price must be lower than the proposal a year ago, task force members emphasized.
The recommendation will be presented to the Steele County Board at its June 11 meeting.
The task force has been meeting since January to identify a satisfactory solution to current and longterm
highway department facility needs. In fall 2012, the County Board tabled a vote to build a $13
million new facility on Crane Creek Road after the project ran into concern from business and private
citizens questioning the cost. The county has been leasing temporary facilities since the September 2010
flood left its 40-year-home on Hoffman Drive uninhabitable.

The task force – made up of city and county staff and elected officials, along with five private citizens –
met June 4 to review costs associated with three options: buy and remodel the current leased buildings
at 900 NW 30th Place in the industrial park, buy and remodel the vacated Caterpillar building on South
County Road 45 or build new on old Highway 14/Crane Creek Road.

Deb Brandwick of Oertel Architects and Scott Quiring of Amcon Construction Management presented
revised estimated costs of each site, after touring both existing facilities. They estimated costs of $11.2
million to purchase and remodel the Caterpillar building and $9 million to purchase and remodel the
location currently being leased. Buildings at both sites are 30-plus years old. Task force discussion and
consensus was that neither site appeared to be a good investment for the county based on the age and
work flow constraints.

County possession of the Caterpillar building would remove $2.5 million of tax base from Owatonna
Township rolls, township leaders wrote in a resolution forwarded to the task force. The township
recommended the county build on its purchased site.

Margaret Michaletz, a private citizen task force member, said it was time to move forward. “We’ve had
one common thread throughout these discussions with taxpayers: it must be reasonable. We’ve learned
enough; it’s time to spend energy on shrinking the proposed building.”

Chair of the task force and County Commissioner Bruce Kubicek recommended the group meet again in
a work session on June 18 to redesign the proposed building. He expressed hope the redesign work be
done by August.

Discussions at that meeting will include proposed cuts and changes. The challenge will be prioritizing
needs after analyzing the cost benefit on labor efficiencies and materials life cycle savings, county staff
noted. The next full task force meeting is scheduled for 3-4:30 p.m. July 18.