There won’t be a new public works garage in Hovland this year, and the Community Center warming house project is on hold.
Unfortunately, when the bids were opened for these projects in late June, they exceeded the architect’s estimates.
At the request of the county commissioners, Cook County administrator Jeff Cadwell attempted to negotiate the projects down with the low bidders, working with them to take out things that might not be needed at this time, but he was unable to get the prices close enough to fit the county budget.
The county budget for the Hovland Public Works facility is $1,244,000. The low bid received was $1,630,253. After looking for ways to save money (value engineering), the proposal was reduced to $1,525,374. Still too high.
With that, the county board rejected all bids and plans to re-bid the project in February of 2019.
Community Center Warming House
The Community Center Warming House project had a total projected cost of $310,000, but the bids received tallied $546,379.
Once again the county rejected the bids.
Administrator Cadwell will work with the lowest bidder to lower the cost of the building to $175,000 while allowing the county to develop a facility that serves the anticipated program needs. He told commissioners he hoped to have an update on this process within 30 days.
Community Center skating rink work to begin
S & C Masonry and Concrete was awarded the contract for the community center skating rink. They will remove the old concrete and put in new concrete curbing. S & C will coordinate the work with Becker Arena Products. Becker will remove and refurbish the hockey boards, putting them back up some time in the fall.
Cadwell said he anticipates issuing bids for the courthouse roof and law enforcement windows this summer. He told commissioners he hoped the items on the capital project list could be completed by the end of summer 2019, noting they needed to stay within the $2,054,000 funds allocated for these projects.
New MIS system administrator hired
Kishan Barwaliya was appointed as the county’s new MIS system administrator. He fills the vacancy by the retirement of Kevin Twiest.
Barwaliya has a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Additionally, he has six different network certifications.
Jim McDermott was appointed by the board to fill the term of Bill Parish on Cook County Community Center Board of Trustees. Parish is leaving Cook County this summer. He has represented the curling club on the board and McDermott, who is also a curler, asked to finish out Parish’s term on the board.
Administrator’s review
Commissioners approved the annual review of administrator Jeff Cadwell. Each county board member and department heads were asked to submit a yearly review of Mr. Cadwell. Once the evaluations were compiled a meeting was held with Mr. Cadwell and commissioner board chair Ginny Storlie to go over the findings. Results of the review are private.
Accomplishments for the previous year were listed for administrator Cadwell. These include: Balancing the budget. Completing the implementation of the Keystone Class and compensation study. Replacing the eight separate wage scales with a single wage scale; creating parity throughout the job classification scale. Negotiated three-year contracts with each of the three bargaining units. Completed the issuance of bonds for the EDA/One Roof Housing project in Lutsen and the transportation sales tax and capital improvement bond.
Also, the WOLD jail study and capital improvement plan were completed as well as updating the employee handbook. Cadwell also oversaw filling the department head vacancies in the highway department as well as at Public Health & Human Services.
Mailbox standard set
At the request of county highway engineer Krysten Foster, the county board voted to adopt the Minnesota Department of Transportation Swing-Away Support Standard Plate No. 9350 for mailbox installations.
The new standard sets the height, setback, post angle, dimensions, materials and underground burial depth for the mailbox.
It was noted that currently many mailbox posts along County-maintained roads do not meet these standards.
At the county’s expense, Cook County will provide and install mailbox posts within the limits of state-aid or federal-aid reconstruction or resurfacing projects. Residents included in those projects have the option of opting out of non-conforming replacement in advance of the project.
Property owners can purchase a conforming post from the Cook County Highway Department for $75.
The county will replace, at the discretion of the highway department, conforming mailbox posts that have been damaged by the county’s snowplowing equipment. The county, however, won’t repair or replace non-conforming (including homemade swing-away posts) posts that have been damaged by third parties.
CSAH 17 work to begin this fall
Despite receiving two bids and both of those coming in higher than expected, commissioners voted to approve Northland Constructors of Duluth, LLC to start work this fall to repair/reconstruct CSAH 17 (Mineral Center Road).
Foster said out of six prospective bidders, the highway department only received two sealed bids for the reconstruction of County State Aid Highway 17, and both bids exceeded the engineer’s estimates.
Northland Constructors of Duluth, LLC bid was 17 percent higher ($4,343,695.90) while KGM Contractors, Inc. bid of $4,876,367.25, was 31.4 percent higher than the engineer’s estimate of $3,713,575.75.
If all goes as planned and the weather holds, the work should be completed by the end of this fall.
Interim use permit granted
With a 4-1 recommendation from the planning commission, the county board approved an interim use permit request to establish a studio and art gallery on Sharon and Steve Frykman’s 80-acre property on County Road 44.
Business operations will be limited to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Saturday from Memorial Day weekend through October 7, with an allowance of 10 consecutive days of operation associated with the Fall Studio Tour.
While Frykmans received many letters of support, some of their neighbors along the dead-end road wrote to the planning commission with concerns about noise and extra traffic and the possibility that their property could lose value.
Commissioners voted 4-1 to allow Frykmans to open their business with a review of their permit scheduled after six months.
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